AMD Announces the Resignation of Dave Orton, former CEO of..

posted in NINTENDO news groups because Dave Orton spearheaded ArtX,
the small company that designed the "Flipper" graphics processing unit
in Gamecube -- later under ATI, was upgraded into the "Hollywood" GPU
used in Wii.



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Dave Orton to leave AMD at the end of July
Tuesday 10th July 2007, 02:02:58 PM, written by Rys


http://www.beyond3d.com/content/news/336

AMD has issued a press release announcing that Dave Orton, former CEO
of ATI, is leaving the company as one of its executive VPs at the end
of this month.

Orton had this to say in the press release: "It is with mixed feelings
that I am leaving AMD. I am very optimistic about AMD's future. I
believe strongly in the strategies that brought AMD and ATI together
and the talented employees of the 'new AMD' who are committed to
winning in the market by delivering the best possible solutions for
customers."

Adrian Hartog and Rick Bergman will now report to the Office of the
CEO in their roles as senior VP and general manager of the Consumer
Electronics and Graphics Product Group (GPG) divisions respectively.

It's unclear exactly why Orton is leaving the post of executive VP of
the GPG, after his very successful tenure at the head of ATI
Technologies, following ATI's acquisition of ArtX. One reason could be
money, with too many heads at senior VP level for AMD to feel
comfortable with on a salary basis, as the company looks to cut costs.
We hope it's not for performance related reasons this soon after the
merger, and it'll be interesting to see how analysts and the market
react to the news.

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http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543~118274,00.html

AMD Announces the Resignation of Dave Orton, former CEO of ATI



SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- July 10, 2007 --AMD (NYSE:AMD) announced today
that Dave Orton, former president and chief executive officer of ATI
Technologies, has resigned as executive vice president of AMD,
effective the end of July, 2007.

"Dave's passion and relentless drive catapulted ATI into a solid
leadership position in each of the company's graphics, chipset and
consumer electronics businesses," said Dirk Meyer, AMD president and
chief operating officer. "More recently, Dave was one of the key
drivers in the successful integration of AMD and ATI. With his
integration work complete and the successful launch of key graphics
and chipset products earlier this year, the time was right for Dave to
take his personal and professional life in a different direction."

"It is with mixed feelings that I am leaving AMD," said Orton. "I am
very optimistic about AMD's future. I believe strongly in the
strategies that brought AMD and ATI together and the talented
employees of the 'new AMD' who are committed to winning in the market
by delivering the best possible solutions for customers."

Adrian Hartog, senior vice president and general manager, consumer
electronics group and Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general
manager, graphics products group will now report into the Office of
the CEO. The addition of the Consumer Electronics and Graphics
businesses as direct reports into the Office of the CEO helps ensure
the ongoing strategic attention and focus for these important
businesses.


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my thoughts (not all together lol, haven't had any coffee yet)

.....what this means for the future of Nintendo console graphics (i.e.
Wii 2 or Wii HD ) is unknown.

ever since Project Reality (Nintendo 64) Nintendo has held a good
relationship with the *people*
(not always the companies) behind the graphics of their consoles. when
the team that designed the RCP (Reality Co-Processor) for Nintendo 64
left Silicon Graphics to form ArtX in 1997 or 1998, Nintendo turned to
ArtX because Nintendo trusted those people, not the leftovers at SGI.
When ArtX was bought by ATI in 2000, Nintendo stayed close to the
same people.

AMD recently bought ATI. with the CEO leaving, and he's not just a
CEO, Dave Orton is also an engineer, it makes me wonder if Nintendo
will follow where Orton goes, or stay with AMD for the GPU that powers
Wii's successor.