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Hester is leaving AMD "to pursue other opportunities" according to a company spokesman, who claims his departure is unrelated to the recent announcement of sweeping job cuts across the company.

And Hester seemingly leaves no boots to fill, with AMD claiming it "doesn't have any plans to continue that global CTO position."

AMD has had no shortage of technology problems in recent months, with the bungled launch of its "Barcelona" Phenom processors causing acute embarrassment and accentuating Intel's performance lead.

Hester probably won't carry the can for such failures, however, having been largely focused on the company's "accelerated computing" project, which aims to integrate specialised "co-processors" with x86 microprocessors for improved performance.