Raja Koduri, head of Radeon Technologies Group (RTG), have apparently sent out an internal memo to AMD and Radeon employees regarding his decision to leave AMD. This news comes a surprise, especially given the fact that the company had just recently announced that it will be working with its rival, Intel, to provide the blue company with its graphics technologies for its upcoming lineup of CPUs (you can read more about that here).
Here is Raja Koduri’s memo in full:
“To my AMD family,
Forty is a significant number in history. It is a number representing transition, testing and change. I have just spent forty days away from the office going through such a transition. It was an important time with my family, and it also offered me a rare space for reflection. During this time I have come to the extremely difficult conclusion that it is time for me to leave RTG and AMD.
I have no question in my mind that RTG, and AMD, are marching firmly in the right direction as high-performance computing becomes ever-more-important in every aspect of our lives. I believe wholeheartedly in what we are doing with Vega, Navi and beyond, and I am incredibly proud of how far we have come and where we are going. The whole industry has stood up and taken notice of what we are doing. As I think about how computing will evolve, I feel more and more that I want to pursue my passion beyond hardware and explore driving broader solutions.
I want to thank Lisa and the AET for enabling me to pursue my passion during the last four years at AMD, and especially the last two years with RTG. Lisa has my utmost respect for exhibiting the courage to enable me with RTG, for believing in me and for going out of her way to support me. I would also like to call out Mark Papermaster who brought me into AMD, for his huge passion for technology and for his relentless support through many difficult phases. And of course, I want to thank each and every one of my direct staff and my indirect staff who have worked so hard with me to build what we have now got. I am very proud of the strong leaders we have and I’m fully confident that they can execute on the compelling roadmap ahead.
I will continue to be an ardent fan and user of AMD technologies for both personal and professional use.
As I mentioned, leaving AMD and RTG has been an extremely difficult decision for me. But I felt it is the right one for me personally at this point. Time will tell. I will be following with great interest the progress you will make over the next several years.
On a final note, I have asked a lot of you in the last two years. You’ve always delivered. You’ve made me successful both personally and professionally, for which I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I have these final requests from you as I leave:
. Stay focused on the roadmap!
. Deliver on your commitments!
. Continue the culture of Passion, Persistence and Play!
. Make AMD proud!
. Make me proud!
Yours,
Raja ”
It’s worth noting, however, that AMD itself have not officially posted anything regarding the resignation of Raja Koduri. With the departure of Koduri from Radeon, it seems very likely that Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, will take charge of the graphics division for the time being. AMD will, however, be actively looking for a successor to Koduri.
That aside, while some people may feel that Koduri’s decision to leave Radeon may be due to the lacklustre launch of its RX Vega graphics cards, one should keep in mind that it was Radeon, under the supervision of Koduri, who made the barrier of entry to VR gaming lower (RX 400 series cards). In addition, Radeon was also the first company to implement the HBM2 memory controller onto consumer-grade graphics cards. For what it’s worth, thanks for everything, Raja.
(Source: Hexus)
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