IT House February 13 news, according to CRN reports, Intel sent a memorandum this week showing that Alper Ilkbahar, the leader of Intel Optane's memory business, left the company for personal reasons.
In a memo outlining changes to Intel's Data Center and AI Group, Ilkbahar's last day at Intel was Feb. 11, and he was succeeded as vice president and general manager of Intel Optane Group by David Tuhy, who previously led Optane and SSD software at Intel.
Rivera, who leads Intel's Data Center and Artificial Intelligence Group, wrote: "It is with mixed feelings that I share the news that Alper Ilkbahar has decided to leave Intel for personal reasons. Alper has made many significant contributions to Intel since joining Intel in 1992 as a design engineer for intel 486 processors, and returned to Intel in 2016 to lead our Optane memory group. ”
Rivera said Optane," based on 3D XPoint technology developed by Intel and Micron Technologies, under Ilkbahar's leadership, "has become a key differentiator in Intel's portfolio."
"In less than 3 years, Optane's revenue has grown to $500 million," Rivera said in the memo, which does not further elaborate on the revenue figures.
Ilkbahar has always been a role model for Intel values, a world-class professional, a mentor and a friend," she added.
In the publicly disclosed information, Intel only provides some financial information about Optane's business, which makes it difficult to learn more. According to the media blocks and files, Intel disclosed in a recent public filing that optane's business brought in $392 million in revenue in fiscal year 2021. The same filing discloses that the business recorded an operating loss of $576 million in 2020.
IT House understands that Intel made this data public because it moved optane's business from the Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group to the Data Center Group, as a result of Intel's sale of its NAND and SSD businesses to South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix.
Block and Files noted that while it does not know the operating income of optane's business in 2021, Intel disclosed in a previous public filing that Optane brought in $298 million in revenue in the first three quarters of 2020.
While Intel has sold its NAND and SSD businesses, the company has maintained its investment in Optane, a chipmaker that uses the Optane brand to manufacture persistent memory and storage products. Micron, on the other hand, has stopped working with products that use 3D XPoint technology.
At an Intel storage and memory event in December 2020, Intel executives said Optane was a "disruptive, once-in-a-decade invention."