In a second piece of AMD news today - this time official - it's been announced that the company will be restructuring to provide its graphics arm with more autonomy. The newly created Radeon Technologies Group has already been hailed in some quarters as the de facto resurrection of ATI, the GPU designers AMD bought in 2006 and later assimilated into the wider AMD brand.Heading up Radeon Technologies Group is Raja Koduri as Senior Vice President and Chief Architect, reporting directly to CEO Dr. Lisa Su. Koduri has a much publicised history in the graphics industry, with 20 years of experience under his belt as designer and engineer. Recently he has been in overall charge of AMD's LiquidVR program, bringing low-latency hardware-accelerated Virtual Reality experiences to PC-based VR devices such as the Oculus Rift, and was influential in the push to develop High Bandwidth Memory for its world's first debut on AMD hardware.
The choice of Raja Koduri is seen as an auspicious move, heralding a renewed focus on VR and other immersive experiences. Both gaming and VR cinema are seen as crucial to the eventual success of VR as a medium and long-term growth in the PC market, and AMD need to be ready on the ground floor. It's not clear however how much the restructuring will impact AMD's APU design process, which has been core to their desktop and embedded (esp: console chip-making) business for the last five years.
This announcement comes at an important time for AMD. The Radeon R9 Nano will be in public hands from tomorrow, and in this new GPU AMD are gambling that size matters to a small but significant number of 4K gamers. With the exception of a dual-GPU design later this year the Nano is likely to be their final major hardware release of 2015, and maintaining momentum (as well as regaining lost market share) going into 2016 will be an immense challenge.
For more information, check out the entire press release below:
SUNNYVALE, CA, Sep 09, 2015 - AMD today announced the promotion of Raja Koduri to senior vice president and chief architect, Radeon Technologies Group, reporting to president and CEO Dr. Lisa Su. In his expanded role, Koduri is responsible for overseeing all aspects of graphics technologies used in AMD's APU, discrete GPU, semi-custom, and GPU compute products.
"We are entering an age of immersive computing where we will be surrounded by billions of brilliant pixels that enhance our daily lives in ways we have yet to fully comprehend," said Dr. Su. "AMD is well positioned to lead this transition with graphics IP that powers the best gaming and visual computing experiences today. With the creation of the Radeon Technologies Group we are putting in place a more agile, vertically-integrated graphics organization focused on solidifying our position as the graphics industry leader, recapturing profitable share across traditional graphics markets, and staking leadership positions in new markets such as virtual and augmented reality."
"AMD is one of the few companies with the engineering talent and IP to make emerging immersive computing opportunities a reality," said Koduri. "Now, with the Radeon Technologies Group, we have a dedicated team focused on growing our business as we create a unique environment for the best and brightest minds in graphics to be a part of the team re-defining the industry."
Koduri has more than 20 years of hands-on experience advancing the visual computing experience on personal computers, from content creation to GPU system architecture and design. Koduri most recently was responsible for driving AMD's visual and accelerated computing innovations, including the development of the industry's first graphics chip with integrated High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) to deliver new levels of performance in smaller, more power-efficient graphics cards. Koduri has also been responsible for leading AMD's LiquidVR(TM) initiative to deliver the best possible virtual reality (VR) experiences through the development of new technologies and partnerships designed to make everything from gaming to VR cinema every bit as immersive and interactive as the real world. He joined AMD from Apple, where he was director of graphics architecture. Prior to joining Apple, Koduri served in a range of graphics leadership roles at AMD and ATI. Koduri holds a Master of Technology degree in Electronics and Communications from IIT Kharagpur, India.
"We are entering an age of immersive computing where we will be surrounded by billions of brilliant pixels that enhance our daily lives in ways we have yet to fully comprehend," said Dr. Su. "AMD is well positioned to lead this transition with graphics IP that powers the best gaming and visual computing experiences today. With the creation of the Radeon Technologies Group we are putting in place a more agile, vertically-integrated graphics organization focused on solidifying our position as the graphics industry leader, recapturing profitable share across traditional graphics markets, and staking leadership positions in new markets such as virtual and augmented reality."
"AMD is one of the few companies with the engineering talent and IP to make emerging immersive computing opportunities a reality," said Koduri. "Now, with the Radeon Technologies Group, we have a dedicated team focused on growing our business as we create a unique environment for the best and brightest minds in graphics to be a part of the team re-defining the industry."
Koduri has more than 20 years of hands-on experience advancing the visual computing experience on personal computers, from content creation to GPU system architecture and design. Koduri most recently was responsible for driving AMD's visual and accelerated computing innovations, including the development of the industry's first graphics chip with integrated High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) to deliver new levels of performance in smaller, more power-efficient graphics cards. Koduri has also been responsible for leading AMD's LiquidVR(TM) initiative to deliver the best possible virtual reality (VR) experiences through the development of new technologies and partnerships designed to make everything from gaming to VR cinema every bit as immersive and interactive as the real world. He joined AMD from Apple, where he was director of graphics architecture. Prior to joining Apple, Koduri served in a range of graphics leadership roles at AMD and ATI. Koduri holds a Master of Technology degree in Electronics and Communications from IIT Kharagpur, India.
