Jim Keller Reportedly Working with Samsung on AI Processors

Jim Keller has been working with Samsung on AI processors. He left Intel to work on the project.

Jim Keller, the former lead architect of AMD’s Ryzen and Threadripper processors has reportedly joined Samsung. The news broke at a major industry conference held in November 2018 where it was said that he would be part of an AI processor team for mobile applications.

Image credit: Intel

Jim Keller is said to be working on a new generation of AI processors with Samsung. A keynote address he gave at the Samsung SAFE Forum last week fuelled the notion. If this is accurate, he will be working with some of the world’s most sophisticated node processes, such as Samsung’s 2 nm chips, which are expected to arrive in 2025.

Jim Keller made a major lecture at the Samsung Foundry Forum gathering a few days ago, sparking anticipation that he will join Samsung and work on more powerful AI chips.

Image courtesy of Samsung

	Company	Title	A Crucial Product
1980s	1998	DEC	Architect	Alpha
1998	1999	AMD	Architect in Charge	HyperTransport K7, K8v1
1999	2000	SiByte	Architect in Chief	MIPS Networking is a networking protocol developed by MIPS. is a networking protocol developed by MIPS.
2000	2004	Broadcom	Architect in Chief	MIPS Networking
2004	2008	P.A. Semi	Vice President of Engineering	Mobile phone with low power consumption
2008	2012	Apple	Vice President of Engineering	Mobile A4 / A5
8/2012	9/2015	AMD	Vice President of the Corporation and Chief Cores Architect	K12 (+ Zen) / Skybridge
1/2016	4/2018	Tesla	Vice President of Autopilot Hardware Engineering	FSD (Fully Self-Driving) Chip
4/2018	6/2020	Intel	Silicon Engineering Senior Vice President	?
2021	Tenstorrent	President and Chief Technology Officer	TBD

AnandTech Table

Keller is a semiconductor industry celebrity. Although he jokingly refers to himself as one of the uncles, he is acknowledged as the father of AMD’s Zen architecture. He also worked with Apple and Intel, and there’s a claim that he assisted the latter in the development of a new chip named Royal Cove, which is expected to be released in 2024. He joined Tesla in 2016 to assist with the development of a chip for the autonomous driving computing system. He is presently the president and chief technology officer of Tenstorrent Inc. He recently met down with AnandTech for an in-depth interview and detailed explanation of his ownership in the firm.

Although the firm has been around for a long time, we are now developing a new generation of components, as well as coming to market and selling products. I’m the CTO and president, and I have a significant financial investment in the firm as well as a commitment to my friends there, so I want to stay for a long.

There has been no formal news about a cooperation with Samsung, but given his vast history of working with a variety of firms and his growing interest in AI, it is quite likely. It’d most likely be a contractual arrangement than just his quitting Tenstorrent.

Baidu is one of the sources (via Chiphell). AnandTech, Korea Economic Daily Edition

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