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nother AMD executive departure has fueled speculation Tuesday. Graphics division CTO Eric Demers is known to be exiting the chip designer as of February 17. Former Apple executive and current primary CTO Mark Papermaster would temporarily take over during his absence.
Neither Demers nor AMD had identified the reasons or ultimate destination. AMD did acknowledge that the outgoing CTO was leaving to “pursue other opportunities,” or a new job. It reiterated that the company was “fully committed” to dedicated graphics and was taking care to get the right replacement.
The departure has raised attention as he’s believed to be going to a company other than one of AMD’s immediate rivals, Intel or NVIDIA. He has always worked in computer graphics hardware, starting with Montreal’s Matrox and moving on to Seiko/Epson, SGI, and Gamecube graphics firm ArtX before settling at a pre-acquisition ATI. His expertise could lend him to a mobile processor or graphics designer such as Apple, ARM, Imagination Technologies (PowerVR), Qualcomm, TI, or Samsung.
