在休假滿 40 天後，Radeon Technologies Group 大頭正式離開 AMD。
2013 年 4 月從 Apple 回到 AMD，Raja Koduri 身影一直在 Hawaii、Fiji、Tonga、Polaris 以及 Vega 產品發表會見到，但從 2017 年 11 月以後，我們再也不會在 AMD 產品發表會上見到其身影，因為身為 AMD Radeon Technologies Group 高級副總裁以及首席架構師的 Raja Koduri 確定離開待了 4 年多的 AMD。
以下是 Raja Koduri 發給 AMD 的公開信：
To my AMD family,
Forty is a significant number in history. It is a number representing transition, testing and change. I have just spent forty days away from the office going through such a transition. It was an important time with my family, and it also offered me a rare space for reflection. During this time I have come to the extremely difficult conclusion that it is time for me to leave RTG and AMD.
I have no question in my mind that RTG, and AMD, are marching firmly in the right direction as high-performance computing becomes ever-more-important in every aspect of our lives. I believe wholeheartedly in what we are doing with Vega, Navi and beyond, and I am incredibly proud of how far we have come and where we are going. The whole industry has stood up and taken notice of what we are doing. As I think about how computing will evolve, I feel more and more that I want to pursue my passion beyond hardware and explore driving broader solutions.
I want to thank Lisa and the AET for enabling me to pursue my passion during the last four years at AMD, and especially the last two years with RTG. Lisa has my utmost respect for exhibiting the courage to enable me with RTG, for believing in me and for going out of her way to support me. I would also like to call out Mark Papermaster who brought me into AMD, for his huge passion for technology and for his relentless support through many difficult phases. And of course, I want to thank each and every one of my direct staff and my indirect staff who have worked so hard with me to build what we have now got. I am very proud of the strong leaders we have and I’m fully confident that they can execute on the compelling roadmap ahead.
I will continue to be an ardent fan and user of AMD technologies for both personal and professional use.
As I mentioned, leaving AMD and RTG has been an extremely difficult decision for me. But I felt it is the right one for me personally at this point. Time will tell. I will be following with great interest the progress you will make over the next several years.
On a final note, I have asked a lot of you in the last two years. You’ve always delivered. You’ve made me successful both personally and professionally, for which I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I have these final requests from you as I leave:
. Stay focused on the roadmap!
. Deliver on your commitments!
. Continue the culture of Passion, Persistence and Play!
. Make AMD proud!
. Make me proud!Yours,
Raja
這 4 年的 Radeon Technologies Group 或者是說 AMD 有逐漸的回溫，特別是在 Radeon RX 200 系列顯示卡以及 Ryzen 處理器陸續登場之後，而選擇在這個時間點離開，讓人覺得有點不太對勁，特別是 Intel 宣布在 Intel Inside 處理器內加入 AMD Radeon GPU IP。
針對 Raja Koduri 的離職，AMD 也發出簡短聲明稿：
Earlier today, we announced two unrelated updates for our Radeon Technologies Group: 1) Raja Koduri has decided to leave AMD and 2) we are taking the next steps in our work to strengthen RTG by further focusing the organization on key growth areas.
I wanted to also make sure you understood these updates do not impact our plans or the strategic direction we are driving our graphics business. We appreciate the contributions Raja has made helping establish our dedicated graphics focus and strong team that is capable of accomplishing the ambitious goals we have set for this part of our business. Also want to make sure it is clear that there are no changes to our public product or technology graphics roadmaps, and we remain on track to deliver on our commitments in 2018 and beyond. Lisa will continue to lead RTG on an interim basis while we complete our search for a new leader.
We have made significant progress across AMD these past two years delivering the first wave of our high-performance products, best exemplified by our improved financial performance and year-over-year market share gains across all of our client, graphics and server products. Today’s changes are designed to allow us to better take advantage of the significant growth opportunities in front of us.
AMD 在聲明中提到 Radeon Technologies Group 的 roadmap 並沒有因為 Raja Koduri 離開而有變化，也就意味著接下來 7nm FinFET 製程的 Navi 以 2020 年 7nm FinFET+ 的產品都可能不會有太大變動，而之後的規劃就得視 Radeon Technologies Group 新領導人，也就是 AMD 的 CEO 與董事會主席 Lisa Su 而定。