Jim Keller joinedDEC in 1982 and worked there until 1998, where he was involved in designing a number of processors, including theVAX 8800,[1] theAlpha 21164 and theAlpha 21264 processors.[3][4] Prior to DEC, he had worked atHarris Corporation on microprocessor boards.[1] In 1998, he moved to AMD, where he worked to launch the AMDAthlon (K7) processor and was the lead architect of theAMD K8 microarchitecture,[17] which also included designing the x86-64 instruction set and HyperTransport interconnect, mainly used formultiprocessor communications.[3]
In 1999, he left AMD to work at SiByte to designMIPS-based processors for 1 Gbit/s network interfaces and other devices.[4][12][18] In November 2000 SiByte was acquired byBroadcom,[19] where he continued as chief architect[9] until 2004.[3]
In 2004, he moved to serve as the Vice President of Engineering atP.A. Semi,[3][11] a company specializing in low-power mobile processors.[4] In early 2008 Keller moved to Apple. P.A. Semi was acquired by Apple shortly afterwards, reuniting Keller with his prior team from P.A. Semi.[6][17] The new team worked to design the Apple A4 and A5system-on-a-chip mobile processors. These processors were used in several Apple products, includingiPhone 4,4S,iPad andiPad 2.
In August 2012, Keller returned to AMD, where his primary task was to lead development of new generations ofx86-64 andARMmicroarchitectures calledZen andK12.[15][14] After years of being unable to compete withIntel in the high-endCPU market, AMD restored its ability to do just that with the new generation of Zen processors.[3][13] On September 18, 2015 Keller left AMD.[20]
In January 2016, Keller joinedTesla, Inc. as Vice President of Autopilot Hardware Engineering.[21]
In April 2018, Keller joinedIntel, where he served as Senior Vice President.[21][22][23] He resigned from Intel in June 2020, officially citing personal reasons,[24] though a later report said his departure was catalyzed by a dispute about whether the company should outsource more of its production.[25]
Keller joinedAI chip startupTenstorrent as CTO in December 2020[26] and became its CEO in January 2023.[27]
In 2023, Keller andSam Zeloof founded Atomic Semi, a foundry tools company that aims to design and manufacture low-cost small scale fabrication equipment.[28]
Jim Keller was born in New Jersey as the second of six children.[29] His father worked at General Electric Aerospace as a mechanical engineer and his mother was a stay-at-home mother during his childhood before becoming a therapist later in life.[29]
Jim Keller's wife Bonnie[30] is the sister of Canadian author and clinical psychologistJordan Peterson.[31]
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