Intel yesterday played music chairs with its senior management. As CEO Paul Otellini prepared to pause the looped tape of the chip giant's infamous five-note jingle, Bill Siu and Richard Wirt, respectively head of the company's Channel Platforms Group and chief of the Software and Services Group announced their retirement, reducing the unseemly dash for seating by two.

Handy, that, because it leaves room for the others. Mobility Group chief Sean Maloney found himself sitting in the Sales and Marketing Group chair - he'll also look after Channel Platforms until a replacement for Siu is found.

Maloney's fellow Brit, Don MacDonald, is now head of Marketing and Brands. His former seat at the top of the Digital Home Group was taken by Eric Kim, the ex-Samsung branding bod who previouslty co-managed Sales and Marketing with Anand Chandrasekher. Chandrasekher now gets to set up a low-power Intel Archicture team which will effectively replace the XScale organisation Intel sold earlier this month.

Chandrasekher reports to David Perlmutter, who's now running Mobility. MacDonald reports to Maloney. Kim reports to... well, Intel didn't say, so we'll assume for now his boss is Otellini himself. Meanwhile, Wirt's co-General Manager at Software and Services, Renee James, will run the division until a full-time replacement for Wirt is found once he leaves, at the end of the year. ®

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