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In tit for tat, AMD grabs Apple chip designer

This month an Apple chip designer goes to AMD. Last month it was an AMD chip guy joining Apple.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers
At Apple, Keller worked on mobile chips, such as Apple A series processors used in the iPad and iPhone.
At Apple, Keller worked on mobile chips, such as Apple A series processors used in the iPad and iPhone. iFixit

Fast on the heels of Apple nabbing a designer from chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices, AMD turned around today and hired an Apple chip architect.

Jim Keller, 53, will join AMD as a corporate vice president and chief architect of AMD's microprocessor cores, reporting to Chief Technology Officer Mark Papermaster, another former Apple employee.

"Keller will lead AMD's microprocessor core design efforts...with a focus on developing both high-performance and low-power processor cores that will be the foundation of AMD's future products," AMD said in a statement.

Keller had been a director in the platform architecture group at Apple. There he designed mobile chips, including those used in the iPad, iPhone, iPod, and Apple TV.

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Apple recently hired a system-on-a-chip expert away from AMD.

Before Apple, Keller was vice president of design for P.A. Semi, a chip-design firm specializing in low-power mobile processors. P.A. was acquired by Apple in 2008.

This isn't Keller's first stint at AMD. Prior to Apple and P.A. Semi, Keller worked on AMD's Athlon 64 and AMD Opteron 64 processors.

He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Penn State University.