AMD manufacturing operation executive jumps to GlobalFoundries

Hexus writes AMD's John Docherty, who was Senior Vice President of Manufaturing Operations, took up a new job at GlobalFoundries as Senior Vice President of Global Operation. Docherty has over 35 years of semiconductor experience and had hands-on experience at AMD with APU, CPU and GPU manufacturing.

There's some speculation that Docherty's switch to GlobalFoundries may lead to a closer cooperation between AMD and GlobalFounries but we can't confirm if this was really the goal of his new carreer.

Of note for enthusiasts is the fact John Docherty could assist with 14nm FinFET production to ensure it arrives at market sooner. AMD will be relying on 14nm silicon from GlobalFoundries in order to counter Nvidia's upcoming GPU architecture, codenamed 'Pascal', based on TSMC's 16nm process, which is said to be launching in 2016.

The move could be viewed as an attempt at vertical integration for AMD who founded GlobalFoundries back in 2009 as a separate company. GlobalFoundries announced a partnership with Samsung back in April to collaborate over the 14nm process. Interestingly, relations between Samsung and AMD's arch-rival Nvidia have deteriorated rapidly which could play into AMD's favour should GlobalFoundries and Samsung experience success with 14nm FinFET.