AMD hires Mark Papermaster as CTO

CHIP DESIGNER AMD has hired Mark Papermaster, the chip expert who earlier left IBM in a cloud of controversy.

The firm announced hiring Papermaster and explained that he will serve as senior vice president and chief technology officer and will report to president and CEO Rory Read. According to its statements the 50 year old executive will oversee all of AMD's engineering, research and development (R&D), and product development and head up its Technology and Engineering group.

Papermaster will be responsible for establishing and executing the company's technology and product roadmaps, integrated hardware and software development, and overseeing the creation of all of AMD's products.

"Mark's appointment significantly strengthens AMD's senior leadership," Read said. "Mark has held substantial engineering roles for three of the technology industry's most innovative companies. He is a proven winner who knows the industry, knows our customers and flat out knows technology.

All roads lead to Papermaster now, and all research and development teams will report to the new SVP, including the advanced research and development team led by AMD's vice president of Research and Development, Chekib Akrout.

Akrout will continue to lead AMD's processor core development and system-on-a-chip (SoC) design methodology, the company added.

Papermaster was most recently VP of Silicon Engineering at Cisco, but before then he had a hard time trying to work at Apple after IBM suggested that as well as moving his seat to that firm's offices he was also taking some prime intellectual property with him too.

Following a bit of a legal debate over a non-compete agreement, which kept Papermaster away from his desk and work at Apple, a settlement was reached that meant he could join the fruit themed firm, but only if he checked in with his former employer and told it what he was up to. µ