Just when we thought that the relationship between AMD and Intel has begun to warm up, a bombshell announcement comes along – Intel has hired Raja Koduri, who was the AMD’s Chief GPU architect. He is going to be the head of Intel’s all-new graphics division (called Core & Visual Computing Group) and will be focused on devising “high-end, discrete graphics.” This is something that Intel never tackled before, and a move that is certain to make them a direct competitor to AMD and NVIDIA in the field of graphics solutions.
Koduri is well-known to everyone interested in graphics chip design. In the last few years, he was the one behind the revitalization of AMD’s whole portfolio of graphics cards, making it possible for the AMD to successfully compete with NVIDIA’s budget and high-end models. And before that, he was the director of graphics architecture at Apple, shifting the company’s computer displays to Retina technology. Venkata Renduchintala, who is the chief engineering officer at Intel, says that “Raja is among the most respected, innovative, and experienced graphics visionaries,” and that Raja will lead the team that will “aggressively expand the company’s graphics and computing abilities.”
It will be a massive understatement to say that I am beyond excited about my new role at Intel. I haven’t yet seen anything written that groks the magnitude of what I am pursuing. The scale of it is not even remotely close to what I was doing before. Will say more when ready!
— Raja Koduri (@Rajaontheedge) November 9, 2017
As far as we’re concerned, this is quite a direct assault on NVIDIA. When it comes to discrete graphics chips, NVIDIA is holding 80% of the market, and their models are a standard for things like training neural networks and grasping human speech.
Intel will probably try to take some of NVIDIA’s market share in this field, and Koduri is expected to enlist a number of engineers and graphics professionals to make this possible.
He says that he’s “very excited to join Intel” and that he’s “eager to help the company accelerate data revolution.” Will his knowledge allow Intel to steal a large piece of cake from AMD and NVIDIA? It remains to be seen.