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Intel processor chip supremo Perlmutter to quit in February 2014

Centrino and Core daddy 'Dadi' to seek 'other opportunities'

Intel has announced that David "Dadi" Perlmutter, the executive VP of the Intel Architecture Group, will be leaving the company on February 20, 2014.

Not coincidentally, that date will mark the 34th anniversary of Perlmutter's time at Intel.

Chipzilla revealed the news in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commision on Wednesday, in which it said Perlmutter tendered his resignation on October 18.

During his tenure at Intel, Perlmutter presided over a variety of important technologies and business initiatives. Perhaps most significantly, it was Perlmutter's Haifa, Israel–based engineering group that developed the Centrino mobile platform and the Pentium M processor in the early 2000s.

Those power-sipping designs arguably transformed the way Intel built its chips, and ideas from the Pentium M effort ultimately went on to inform Intel's Core processor line, development of which Perlmutter also led.

As his star rose, Perlmutter would go on to head all of Intel's platform product lines across data centers, desktops, laptops, embedded devices, and consumer electronics. He was widely believed to be on the short list to take the chief executive role once former CEO Paul Otellini retired in May.

Now that Brian Krzanich has taken the top job, however – an man who, having joined Intel in 1982, has not quite as much history at Intel as Perlmutter – the Israeli-born exec feels it's time to go.

It's a move that's seemingly been in the works for a while. In May, Krzanich initiated a major reorganization of Intel's core product groups that saw the PC client division, the data center division, and the mobile communications division all reporting directly to him. Previously, all three groups had reported to Perlmutter.

At the time, Krzanich announced no new role for Perlmutter, saying via company-wide email that he and Dadi would work together to "define [Perlmutter's] next significant contribution at Intel." It seems those talks haven't gone so well.

According to Intel's SEC filing, Perlmutter will spend the rest of his time at the company providing "transition assistance" to the Intel Platform Group, in addition to whatever else management may ask of him.

Following his departure in February, Perlmutter says he plans to "pursue other opportunities in his life and professional career" – though just what these might be, he hasn't said. ®

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