Following last week’s revelation that its 7nm yields are about a year behind schedule, Intel announced this afternoon that they are reorganizing the tech side of the company. The key to this change is that Intel is dividing its monolithic technology, systems architecture and customer group (TSCG) into several smaller groups, all of which will report directly to CEO Bob Swan. Meanwhile, Intel director of engineering Dr. Murthy Renduchintala, who had been at the helm of TSCG, will leave the company at the end of next week. The reorganization is effective immediately.
As a result of this reorganization, TSCG is dividing into five groups focused on manufacturing and architecture. These are:
- Technological development: Focused on the development of next generation process nodes. Directed by Dr. Ann Kelleher.
- Manufacturing and operations: Focused on increasing the nodes of the current process and developing a fabulous new capacity. Directed by Keyvan Esfarjani.
- design engineering: A newly created group responsible for Intel technology manufacturing and platform engineering. Provisionally led by Josh Walden as Intel searches for a permanent leader.
- Architecture, software and graphics: Development of Intel architectures and associated software stacks. Directed by Raja Koduri (continuing).
- Supply chain: Managing Intel’s Supply Chain and Major Supplier Relationships. Directed by Dr. Randhir Thakur (continuing).
It should be noted that while Intel’s brief announcement does not mention last week’s disclosure, the timing and resulting personnel changes are undoubtedly related to the 7nm delay. Today’s reorganization is the second combination for Intel in so many months, as the company reorganized a number of product groups after Jim Keller left for personal reasons (honestly).
Meanwhile, former TSCG President Dr. Murthy Renduchintala will leave the company on August 3.rd. Renduchintala joined Intel in 2015, and for most of the last half of the decade he has been responsible for overseeing all of TSCG’s efforts, and especially involved in the development of the company’s next-generation process nodes. Intel’s reorganization announcement doesn’t specifically mention Renduchintala beyond its departure date, however it’s hard to imagine that this is anything more than Intel kicking out Renduchintala in light of its process issues. More than anything else, Renduchintala was the face of Intel’s vertically integrated monolithic design and manufacturing strategy; a strategy that no longer exists as Intel is seriously investigating the construction of cutting-edge process parts in competing factories.
In the future, the task of developing Intel’s 7nm and 5nm process nodes will be led by Dr. Ann Kelleher. Kelleher takes the incredibly important (but less than enviable) challenge of getting Intel’s fabulous development process back on track as Intel seeks to regain its crown as the world’s leading chip fab. Kelleher was previously the head of Intel’s manufacturing group, overseeing Intel’s recent acceleration of the 10nm process. Meanwhile, Dr. Mike Mayberry, a central figure in Intel Labs who was already set to retire this year, will stay until then to help with the transition.
Overall, while Intel’s reorganization is unlikely to dramatically change the company’s day-to-day operations, it is very much the start of a new era for the company. As Intel’s ongoing manufacturing issues have led them to seek more products from outside factories, the company’s traditionally vertically integrated structure is less than ideal for the task, and as much as Intel manufacturing would like to maintain Intel-designed products within the company, Intel’s chipset and architecture should be able to freely search elsewhere. And this reorganization will be an important step in enabling that.
Source: Intel
