AMD finally digests ATI

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 7 May 2009 at 09:15

AMD has announced that it will finally merge with ATI, three years after it bought the graphics card businesses.

Until now ATI had existed as a separate division within AMD and maintaining its own management structure. However, the company says folding them together will streamline the process of developing new chip architectures and simplify the process of bringing new products to market.

The shake-up will see the creation of a new products group spearheaded by former graphics chip executive Rick Bergman. This group will be focused on fusing the GPU and CPU together, something chief executive Dirk Meyer described as the company's future.

"The next generation of innovation in the computing industry will be grounded in the fusion of microprocessor and graphics technologies," says Meyer. "With these changes, we are putting the right organisation in place to help enable the future of computing."

The merger will also see the creation of a new Advanced Technology goup charged with developing next-generation hardware, a marketing group that will work out how best to sell it and a customer group that will sweet talk the public.

There are causalities, however. The most high profile departure is Randy Allen, previously in charge of the group that produced chips for servers and workstations. He'll be leaving the company immediately.

AMD hailed Allen with "playing a key role in many of AMD's most significant achievements in recent years."

The new structure is the latest in a long line of shake-ups introduced by chief executive Dirk Meyer, who replaced Hector Ruiz in July last year. AMD has only recently finished spinning off its chip manufacturing business into a separate company.

AMD acquired ATI for $5.4 billion in 2006, but was subsequently forced to write more than $2 billion off the acquisition.