AMD lures Intel star, nine others into the fold

FORT COLLINS – Advanced Micro Devices has pulled off a hiring coup, luring one of Intel’s top engineers to help launch AMD’s new Fort Collins design center.

AMD officials confirmed that Sam Naffziger, previously Intel’s Director of Itanium Circuits in Fort Collins, has joined the rival chip maker along with nine other Intel defectors.

As of April 5, AMD had compiled a total of 15 engineers for the Fort Collins operation, and was close to signing a lease for a temporary office. Selection of a permanent location should come “pretty soon,´ said Jennifer Hill Robenalt, a spokeswoman for AMD.

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AMD’s raid on Intel engineers is the second notable case of high-tech talent poaching in Fort Collins in less than a year. Broadcom Inc. recently lured eight engineers from LSI Logic’s Fort Collins office, also for the purpose of starting a new design center here.

That episode even led to a lawsuit brought by LSI, but the matter was later settled out of court.

News of Naffziger’s switch has made waves in the technology world, and provided more fuel to critics of Intel’s heavily scrutinized Itanium project.

Itanium, started in the mid 1990s as joint effort between Intel and Hewlett-Packard Co., is Intel’s brand name for a family of high-end semiconductors for network servers.

Despite heavy investment in the product, Itanium has been slow to gain ground against server products from chief rivals such as IBM and Sun Microsystems.

Intel recently took full control of the product when it bought HP’s Itanium operation last year, a transaction that included the absorption of about 300 former HP workers, including Naffziger. Naffziger held the designation of “fellow” with Intel – one of about 50 with that title – and was considered the major force behind “Montecito,” the codename for the latest generation of Itanium chip.

The Montecito version was initially due for release last year, but has been delayed until the second half of this year, which has caused some technology analysts to question Itanium’s future in the server market. Some naysayers have dubbed the project “Itanic.”

Naffziger, a 15-year veteran in the semiconductor industry, will take the title of senior fellow for AMD. The company declined to say which product Naffziger will be developing for AMD, only to say he would be “working on future generation processor designs.” Still, AMD has previously announced it’s working on new chip designs for mobile products and servers, and speculation in the industry connects Naffziger to those new products.

During his tenure with HP and Intel, Naffziger was credited for 62 patents.

AMD has indicated it will expand to up to 200 engineers in the Fort Collins office. The company conducted a job fair in January to assess the depth of engineering talent in Northern Colorado, and apparently came away satisfied.

“We don’t have specific information about what that eventually will yield,” Robenalt said. “It did demonstrate to us that Fort Collins really is a dynamic place that has a very impressive pool of talent.”

AMD also announced that Bruce Gieseke, a “corporate fellow” with the Silicon Valley-based company, is serving as the interim director of the design center in Fort Collins.

For its part, Intel insisted that it can absorb the loss of Naffziger, and that Itanium is beginning to grab market share.

“With our Itanium project, overall, we have a very deep bench,´ said Scott McLaughlin, global communications manager for Intel. “We have other fellows contributing to the Itanium project.”

McLaughlin declined to comment on AMD’s motives.

“Our competitors are going to do what they feel they need to do to compete in this space,” he said. “That’s not something we tend to focus a lot of energy on.”

Intel currently operates its Fort Collins design center, which now employs about 350, as a tenant in the HP complex on East Harmony Road. The company acquired the former Celestica Inc. facility across the street from HP, and plans to move late this year.

Intel officials wouldn’t comment on the continued pace of hiring in Fort Collins, but it’s painting a brighter picture for Itanium.

In late March, Intel executive Pat Gelsinger announced that Itanium sales are now half of Sun’s totals and one-third of IBM’s. The Itanium not only has the allegiance of HP, its original partner on the chip, but other hardware heavyweights such as EDS, Unisys, NEC and Hitachi.

In all, Intel will spend about $10 billion between 2006 and 2010 on Itanium, with much of the funding coming from these partner companies. HP alone has pledged $3 billion.

The company feels the investment is worth the effort. The high-end server market is small in numbers but high in dollar volume, representing about 50 percent of server spending, McLaughlin said.

At the same time, only Sun and IBM are significant contenders, with much of the market “consolidating around IBM,” he said.

“The RISC segment is shrinking. That’s why we have such a great opportunity – it just takes time.”

Furthermore, Itanium is in the business of replacing mainframe computers, which customers are slow to let go.