Remember the days of the K6 processor? The days when AMD seemed to do little in the way of innovation, walking in the shadow of Intel. That began to change with the K7 (Athlon), and then AMD really took the reigns with x86 64-bit. Digi Times has published the first part of its interview with Dr. Raghuram Tupuri, general manager, Microprocessor Solutions Sector – Design Engineering at AMD, discussing AMD's innovations.
I worked very closely with Dirk Meyer on the K7/Athlon processor. We both worked on micro-architectural aspects of the K7. He’s a very inspiring and hands-on type of leader, and that’s the management style we have developed in all our microprocessor groups at AMD – very hands-on, with good technical understanding. Dirk always says that he thinks of himself as an engineer at heart, and his background and experience definitely helped him develop his leadership style, walking around, talking with the engineers. He doesn’t miss an opportunity to meet the engineering team and learn about their progress and challenges first hand. That style suits AMD’s design strategy, which is to keep the design teams as small and as experienced as possible, to maximize communication. The key is to enable the team members with all the information they need, leaving them challenged and empowered to do more than their job.
[Digi Times]