Intel is busy laying off 15% of its workforce, totaling 17500 people, while some of its most experienced CPU architects have left to establish a RISC-V startup. Ahead Computing was co founded by Debbie Marr, Mark Dechene, Jonathan Pearce, and Srikanth Srinivasan with the goal of creating a compelling open specification core IP. The proactive move of these four architects and engineers deserves congratulations, as Ahead Computing made its public debut on July 18th - just weeks before Intel announced its severe layoffs plan.
Ahead Computing is located in Oregon, USA, and its website is quite rudimentary, but it does include a company mission statement, a brief personal profile of the co-founder from Intel, a blog post (announcement), and recruitment of new employees with CPU design and validation experience.
The work of Ahead Computing will start with the RISC-V architecture. Specifically, this emerging company has developed a plan dedicated to designing, validating, and licensing eye-catching RISC-V core IP.
The most eye-catching highlight of Ahead Computing is its co founders, who are all former senior CPU architects at Intel.
Dr. Debbie Marr, co-founder, CEO, and President, was a former Intel Fellow and Chief Architect of Intel Advanced Architecture Development Group (AADG). She worked at this chip manufacturer for 33 years, participating in product development from i386 to the present day. The highlight of her career was turning Intel's hyper threading technology from a concept into a finished product. Debbie Marr also holds over 40 patents in the fields of CPU, artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators, and FPGA.
Co founder Mark Dechene was formerly the Chief Engineer and CPU Architect at Intel AADG. During his 16 year tenure at Intel, Mark Dechene was dedicated to the architecture development of Intel CPU products, including Haswell, Broadwell, Goldmont, Goldmont Plus, Tremont, and Skymont. He holds over 15 patents focusing on microprocessor performance.
Co founder Jonathan Pearce has been serving as Intel's Chief Engineer, CPU Architect, and key technology expert and strategist for AADG until recently. Jonathan Pearce worked at Intel for 22 years. During his career, Jonathan Pearce has played both pre - and post silicon roles on multiple generations of Intel Core SOC. He also holds 19 patents in the fields of CPU, AI, and GPU.
Co founder Dr. Srikanth Srinivasan has over 20 years of technical leadership experience in product development. At Intel, it has completed some famous chip designs such as Nehalem, Haswell, and Broadwell. Recently, Srikanth Srinivasan also led the front-end and back-end CPU teams of Intel AADG. So far, the highlight of his career/achievements is having over a dozen highly cited papers and more than 50 patents.
We expect to hear more news about the Ahead Computing plan and achievements soon. On the other hand, PC enthusiasts may be concerned about Intel's future as the company has just launched its most severe layoff plan in its 56 year history, with some ambitious construction plans being questioned, and severe talent loss (as evidenced by this new RISC-V startup) potentially slowing down any opportunities for its revival.
