AMD is hiring another former Apple chip designer. Raja Koduri was most recently Apple’s director of graphics architecture, and will actually be returning to AMD, having once spent four years with them. He’s expected to continue focusing on graphics technology, although what his new AMD job title will be is unknown. The hiring should be formally announced next week.
Koduri originally came to Apple from AMD in April 2009, around the time Apple was preparing its first custom-designed chips for the iPad and iPhone 4. Previously he was working as the CTO of AMD’s graphics product group, having migrated to the position after AMD bought out ATI, where he was the director of advanced technology development.
He has actually been gone from Apple since March, but has since only served as an adviser to the board of Makuta VFX, an Indian visual effects company. CNET’s sources say that AMD has been courting Koduri for some time, trying to get him to come back.
Koduri is not the first prominent Apple chip designer to be recruited by AMD. Last August the company named Jim Keller as its corporate VP and chief microprocessor architect; while at Apple he had worked on A-series processors, having been brought into the fold through Apple’s PA Semi buyout.
