On Wednesday, word broke that one of Apple’s top architects of the iOS empire is bolting for the door.
Jim Keller – one of the purported wizards behind the modern iOS device lineup – has defected from his position as a director in Apple’s mobile platform architecture group to AMD, the semiconductor design innovator.
Keller, we are told, will serve as corporate vice president and chief architect of AMD’s microprocessor cores.
In a peculiar twist of fate, Keller will now report to chief technology officer and senior vice president of technology and engineering Mark Papermaster, who similarly worked at Apple until 2010.
“Jim is one of the most widely respected and sought-after innovators in the industry and a very strong addition to our engineering team,” Papermaster said in a press release issued this morning. “He has contributed to processing innovations that have delivered tremendous compute advances for millions of people all over the world, and we expect that his innovative spirit, low-power design expertise, creativity and drive for success will help us shape our future and fuel our growth.”
