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Intel executive and supercomputer expert Robert Wisniewski has joined the American branch of the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT). Wisniewski worked with Intel for over a decade and was a part of the company’s Aurora supercomputer program. Wisniewski joins Samsung as the chief architect of HPC or High-Performance Computing while also leading the SAIT America Systems Architecture Lab.
“I’m excited to join Samsung SAIT on the mission to create a US-based systems lab,” the former Intel exec said on LinkedIn (via SamMobile). Wisniewski said part of his responsibilities lie in “overcoming the memory and communication walls for AI and HPC applications.”
This is a crucial hire for Samsung, given its high ambitions for the semiconductor industry. Wisniewski worked at IBM Research for 15 years before joining Intel. While his appointment won’t bring drastic changes at Samsung right away, it does give us a hint about the company’s goals for the future.
Samsung’s chip business is in desperate need of a revival
Samsung previously partnered with AMD for the GPU on the Exynos 2200 chipset. Separately, rumors have talked about Samsung’s intentions to develop a new mobile SoC for future Galaxy smartphones. This aligns well with the company’s recently announced $17 billion semiconductor production unit in Taylor, Texas. However, based on recent reports, the unit is still under construction and won’t be fully operational until at least 2024.
The past few months have been quite tumultuous for Samsung, with the company losing a chip manufacturing contract from Qualcomm. While it was initially believed to be due to low yield at Samsung’s production unit, a February report said there’s more to it. Some Samsung Foundry executives may have modified the real yield data to show unflattering results, the report said. By fabricating the results, the executives could demand additional funding from the company. The company’s investigations are still ongoing, so there’s no definitive answer just yet.
With Samsung Foundry only securing a 35% yield on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, Qualcomm was forced to take its business to TSMC. Meanwhile, Samsung’s own Exynos 2200 chip also suffered from yield issues, and the company was already investigating its causes. The revelation of another potential fraud meant that Samsung had to widen the scope of its investigations. With these factors in mind, Samsung badly needs a revival of its strategy.