AMD Bolsters Engineering Talent With Appointment of Two Technology Experts

[btarunr]

AMD today announced that Charles Matar and Wayne Meretsky have joined the company to assume critical new engineering leadership roles driving hardware and software intellectual property (IP) development for AMD's system-on-chip (SoC) solutions. Matar will draw upon his expertise in SoC and processor design to lead AMD's SoC methodology and client SoC execution. Meretsky will lead the company's software development, ensuring tools will be in place that will enable developers to take advantage of the compute power in AMD's SoC designs.

"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."

Charles Matar, named corporate vice president of SoC Development, will serve as a crucial force behind AMD's SoC solutions. Joining AMD from Qualcomm, Matar combines technical expertise in SoC processor and low-power design with a proven track record of consistently introducing new designs in advanced process technology nodes. With experience leading multidiscipline, global teams in delivering SoC designs and embedded processors from definition through silicon, he will employ his in-depth understanding of market trends and wireless industry requirements to help AMD shift appropriate focus to client and embedded market opportunities. Prior to Qualcomm, Matar held engineering roles at Motorola, Rockwell Semiconductor, HAL Computer Systems, PMC-Sierra and helped to develop AMD's K8 processor family.

Meretsky, named corporate vice president, Software IP Development, will lead software development for all of AMD's products. Meretsky is a former AMD Fellow who was instrumental in making AMD's 64-bit technology the de facto industry standard for PCs, workstations and servers. He has more than 25 years of development and management experience in the creation of high-volume technology products and has held leadership roles at Rational, Apple and P.A. Semi. In addition to his technical contributions, Meretsky has a strong track record of managing high-performance teams that will help ensure developers, technology partners and customers are fully aligned with AMD's software strategy. Meretsky is also a former P.A. Semi colleague of Jim Keller, whose appointment as AMD's Chief Architect was announced in August 2012.

[TheMailMan78]

They have great engineering already. What they need is a new PR department and a better paid driver team.

[suraswami]

Good to know AMD's brain fart is coming to an end. They are getting back their think tanks, this shows confidence in the new leadership.

Hopefully we see this Star rise again!

[omnimodis78]

AMD could start the road to recovery by putting out (GPU) drivers that actually work. Time to halt the "faster performance" race and focus on stability and reliability. The drivers are doing a gross injustice to the hardware, which is a shame because the alternatives out there are very attractive. Brand loyalty notwithstanding, what else besides value ($) is attractive about AMD today?

Yes, I have stories, but to sum it up, AMD isn't lacking vision, they're lacking focus. They ought to iron out the basics. Bringing in more people, no matter how smart, is looking more like the same-old-same-old from AMD. They are throwing more lumber at the house when the problem lies with the foundation. Fix that, and things will fall back into place.

Please spare me the flaming btw, I supported AMD through my own builds and all the ones I did for friends and family, but not recently as time and time again I felt disappointed in both product options and management, and so I won't support a company that doesn't have it's own house in order.

[repman244]

Originally Posted by omnimodis78

Time to halt the "faster performance" race and focus on stability and reliability.

You can stop developing new hardware just because your drivers are a bit shaky (sometimes). With that you basically want HD 4870 performance with great drivers (which will still have issues for someone),....it just won't happen.

[omnimodis78]

Originally Posted by repman244

You can stop developing new hardware just because your drivers are a bit shaky (sometimes). With that you basically want HD 4870 performance with great drivers (which will still have issues for someone),....it just won't happen.

No, I meant driver level performance tweaks. FPS increases might be there, but what good is a performance increase in a video game when there are micro-stutters, when blue-screens and "grey-screens" are rampant, when simple things (HDMI...) issues are popping up. AMD could hire a student intern to scout the forums and keep a record of the most common problems (and there's no shortage of information) and direct the engineers to focus in on those issues - instead of putting on this PR stunt that has never worked for them in the past, nor for any other company; and yet continue to put out broken drivers.

[WhiteLotus]

They don't need the tech, they need the marketing.

Just look at how successful Apple are. Whether they have good technology/products is debatable, but what isn't is the marketing success they have.

[repman244]

Originally Posted by omnimodis78

No, I meant driver level performance tweaks. FPS increases might be there, but what good is a performance increase in a video game when there are micro-stutters, when blue-screens and "grey-screens" are rampant, when simple things (HDMI...) issues are popping up. AMD could hire a student intern to scout the forums and keep a record of the most common problems (and there's no shortage of information) and direct the engineers to focus in on those issues - instead of putting on this PR stunt that has never worked for them in the past, nor for any other company; and yet continue to put out broken drivers.

I do agree with what you have said, however you can't have an error free driver...especially when it comes to things like GPU's. There are thousands of different configurations and in some cases you can't even recreate the issue.
Both sides have their fair share of issues.

[ompak5]

i think the good guy of AMD are going back.. but the problem on them are how to manage their ADS so that their product sell fast? last december i went to a mall here in the philippines all i see on the glass window are all intel netbooks, and i ask the salesman if they have amd netbooks, he reply to me Sir dont buy that amd made netbooks it consume more power compare to this intel netbooks.. i just laugh wahahaha.. i told him i have that kind of netbooks but i cannot run simple photoshop. My brother have sony VAIO y series APU and he can do photoshop editing.