AMD CEO Meyer steps down as CPU company evolves

Advanced Micro Devices CEO Dirk Meyer has resigned form his position, and will be replaced temporarily by CFO Thomas Seifert while the company shops around for a new head. The change in executive staff looks to be the ceremonial completion of AMD's integration with ATi.

Back in 2006, AMD announced it had begun a project to build a hybrid CPU/GPU platform called Fusion that was the result of a $5.4 billion cash and stock deal to acquire graphics company ATi. Originally, AMD said the new processors would be available in 2008 or 2009. One year later, AMD shifted its goals and told us that it would probably take a bit longer for the new design to come to fruition.

By 2008, the recession was in full swing, and the re-organization of AMD and ATi teams hadn't fully settled down. That, coupled with the few quarters when the company wasn't performing up to expectations resulted in President and Chief Operations Officer Dirk Meyer escalating to the position of CEO to replace Hector Ruiz.

Now, at the beginning of 2011, AMD's first Fusion processors have finally made it to production, and the company enjoyed a Consumer Electronics Show with more partners and product announcements than it has ever had in the past. Furthermore, the company says its revenues for the fourth quarter of 2010 reached $1.65 billion, which exceeded its projections of $1.62 billion.

AMD's full fourth quarter results are expected to post on Thursday.