14 DAY TRIAL // Press releases can be a great fountain of information, but sometimes they are nothing more than belated confirmation for something that everyone interested already knows. What we are seeing now is an example of the latter.
Yesterday we said that AMD had snagged former Apple and Qualcomm talent. Now, the company has formally announced that fact.
Indeed, Wayne Mertsky, who used to be part of Apple's A-Series chip division, and Charles Matar, formerly an expert in embedded processors working for Qualcomm at one point, are now working for Advanced Micro Devices.
The former has become corporate vice president, software IP development, while the latter is AMD's new corporate vice president of SoC development.
"Charles and Wayne will serve as key members of our engineering brain trust, bringing with them years of expertise in SoC design and developing 64-bit software ecosystems, respectively," said Mark Papermaster, AMD chief technology officer.
"The fact that these computing experts have returned to the company underscores AMD's unique position and opportunity, based on differentiated IP, to take a leadership position in low-power clients and dense cloud servers."
Meretsky used to hold a leadership role with Rational, Apple and P.A. Semi at different points in the past.
More importantly though, he was with AMD itself for a while, back when the company was developing 64-bit technology.
As for Matar, he has experience in low-power design and consistent development of new designs in advanced technology process nodes.
His performance will affect how well AMD does on the client and embedded markets. Given the man's experience acquired over decades of working for Motorola, Rockwell Semiconductor, HAL Computer Systems and PMC-Sierra, he is as qualified for his post as anyone can be.
The bottom line is that the enlistment of these two confirms AMD's decision to emphasize SoC development over CPUs, at least in some areas.