I've accepted an offer from AMD for a Principal Member of Technical Staff position as Principal Customer Engineer for Instinct GPU Software. I can't say much about the role at the moment, though I am looking forward to the challenge.
For those who have read this blog from the beginning, way back in 2005-2006 time frame or so, know that I've worked with AMD numerous times in the past. Usually writing white papers, running benchmarks, discussing accelerators, etc. I wrote on APUs, long before AMD adopted the term.
I'm looking forward to the challenges. I know Nvidia is the 800 kg gorilla in the market, but AMD has a good probability of success, if the ROCm/Instinct software works well, and is widely available, and easily installable. As I am missioned on ROCm/instinct GPU software, hopefully I can have a positive impact in this process.
My approach has always been to target ubiquity, make sure its easy to use, install, on the widest array of systems possible. I tried (and failed) to convince SGI to give away their development environment to users buying SGI Indy units for home/personal use. While Irix never really had a chance versus Linux, it still would have been a good thing to increase utilization of MIPS/SGI kit during its viable lifetime. Might have even altered corporate trajectory of SGI.
So, yeah, tomorrow is my first day. Laptop arrives, I log in, fill out more paper work. And I hope, start learning quickly, and contributing quickly.