Apple hires graphic chip wiz

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 28 April 2009 11:28

Business IT - Technology

Not content with hiring ex-IBMer Mark Papermaster to head up its devices operation, Apple has now signed ATI and AMD alumnus Bob Drebin as a senior director.

Apple acquired chip designer PA Semi a year ago. Commentators were divided on the issue of whether Apple planned to design its own chips or if the plan was to boost its chip expertise in order to work more efficiently with its suppliers.

Drebin was CTO of AMD's graphics products group from the time the company acquired ATI, and was engineering director at ATI for six years prior to that.

His resumé also includes stints at Lucasfilm, Pixar, Silicon Graphics, and ArtX (where he developed the graphics processor for the Nintendo GameCube).

That does suggest Apple may be planning to use Drebin's expertise directly. Since the company only provides profiles of executives at or above the senior vice president level, there's no immediate clue from Cupertino about his responsibilities.

Papermaster was only able to take up his position at Apple after a lawsuit brought by IBM to enforce his no-compete agreement was settled.

The gap in Drebin's resumé between leaving AMD in January 2008 and his recent arrival at Apple suggests he may have been subject to a similar no-compete clause.