The other shoe dropped at Intel today. One week after announcing a major 7nm chip delay that rocked the hardware giant's stock ($INTC), Intel announced an executive shakeup that includes Chief Engineering Officer Murthy Renduchintala exiting the company on August 3.
Intel CEO Bob Swan is seeking to "accelerate product leadership and improve focus and accountability in process technology execution." As a result, the Technology, Systems Architecture and Client Group (TSCG) will be separated into the following teams, whose leaders will report directly to Swan:
- Technology Development, led by Dr. Ann Kelleher. She will now lead Intel technology development focusing on 7nm and 5nm processes -- which will be key to getting Intel back on track.
- Manufacturing and Operations, led by Keyvan Esfarjani.
- Design Engineering, led in the interim by Josh Walden while Intel conducts an accelerated global search to identify a permanent world-class leader.
- Architecture, Software and Graphics will continue to be led by Raja Koduri
- Supply Chain will continue to be led by Dr. Randhir Thakur.
In a prepared statement about the changes, Swan said:
“I look forward to working directly with these talented and experienced technology leaders, each of whom is committed to driving Intel forward during this period of critical execution. I also want to thank Murthy for his leadership in helping Intel transform our technology platform. We have the most diverse portfolio of leadership products in our history and, as a result of our six pillars of innovation and disaggregation strategy, much more flexibility in how we build, package and deliver those products for our customers.”
Amid the hardware delays at Intel, some rivals -- such as AMD -- are perceived to have a technology edge over Intel's current microprocessor technologies.
The big question: Can Dr. Ann Kelleher get Intel's 7nm hardware back on track?
