News Ex-Intel and AMD Chip Architect Jim Keller Joins AI Startup Tenstorrent

[Admin]

Famed ex-Intel and AMD chip architect Jim Keller has taken the role of president, CTO, and board member at AI chip startup Tenstorrent.

Ex-Intel and AMD Chip Architect Jim Keller Joins AI Startup Tenstorrent : Read more

 

[ubicray]

The guy has got golden hands, wish there was a way to invest in Tenstorrent right now

 

[dalek1234]

I was just thinking the same thing. We'll need to wait for an IPO, I suppose.

 

[jkflipflop98]

I think this guy has way more name recognition than he deserves.

In the high-performance semiconductor world it takes between 6 to 10 years to go from a drawing on a napkin to something you can actually sell. It's a lot longer than most people realize.

Jim hasn't held a job in his entire career for more than 4 years. He's basically coming into a company in the middle of the development pipeline, tweaking a few things, then taking credit for the project after release and then jumping ship to the next company.

 

[greatmaharg]

Regardless of how impressive Tenstorrent's work is, my first impression reading this article was "Wow, this is the most buzzwordy company I've ever heard of"

 

[dalauder]

The guy has got golden hands, wish there was a way to invest in Tenstorrent right now

There might be...

 

[ubicray]

I think this guy has way more name recognition than he deserves.

In the high-performance semiconductor world it takes between 6 to 10 years to go from a drawing on a napkin to something you can actually sell. It's a lot longer than most people realize.

Jim hasn't held a job in his entire career for more than 4 years. He's basically coming into a company in the middle of the development pipeline, tweaking a few things, then taking credit for the project after release and then jumping ship to the next company.

I don't think people hiring him at Intel, AMD etc. all are so stupid to allow this to happen if he was useless

 

[jkflipflop98]

I don't think people hiring him at Intel, AMD etc. all are so stupid to allow this to happen if he was useless

Actually, you would be surprised. I've had new engineers come in the door with Master's in computer science that couldn't explain to me the definition of "quad-core processor".

 

[dalauder]

Actually, you would be surprised. I've had new engineers come in the door with Master's in computer science that couldn't explain to me the definition of "quad-core processor".

I don't think he's saying that every CS major is useful. I think he's saying that all these companies are hiring Jim Keller based off of performance, not off of baseless self-promotion. If he were that big on self-promotion, he'd have gotten stock options in the past and be richer by now.

Jim Keller is useful because he isn't an academic "knowledgeable" guy. He's a creative problem solver, like the on-the-job self-taught engineers of old (My grandfather was one of the last Los Angles City engineers who didn't hold a degree in engineering...but this was in the 1930s.)

That said, I do have some suspicious that this company is him cashing in on his name in exchange for raising them capital.

 

[manshooter]

Perhaps I misread the article, but didn't they say that he put up the capitol to open this new company? I believe he did.
His last three jobs at least we're with big well known companies, why would he take a step down to be in a new unproven startup, if all he does is grab credit and move on to other bigger companies?
I DO see this man as a plumber of sorts. He tends to step into a company when it's having problems, plumb the system, get out the clogs until it's running smoothly again. THEN move on when he gets bored.
He seems to have a real stake in this company, his money AND his reputation at risk, that alone makes it an attractive investment to me. I am going to keep my eye on it as it goes along, for a way to get a piece of it.