Senior DX guru leaves MS for ATI

[LeStoffer]

Microsofts senior DirectX guru Philip Taylor is leaving MS for ATI...

I didn't see that one coming. Those crazy Canadians apparantly really mean it when they talk about doing the right thing for developers.

From the <DIRECTXDEV@DISCUSS.MICROSOFT.COM>

I want to announce on these lists that I am leaving Microsoft to join ATI, and will be no longer acting as co-admin of the lists.

I had a great run at Microsoft, and leaving certainly isnt easy. But I have a great position that offers me a new horizon of challenges, and thus had to make the hard choice.

http://discuss.microsoft.com/SCRIPT...=directxdev&D=1&F=&S=&P=14995

 

[Derek Smart [3000AD]]

[Edit - lets not insult other member of this forum in such a manner, eh? - DB]

However, I don't think they needed to head hunt from MS, there are lots of guys with similar experience out there. They probably grabbed this one guy for street cred reasons.

I don't expect that this will help their driver image though. Only time will tell.

 

[antlers]

 

[Fuz]

Ummm.... excuse me for sounding stupid, but what will Philip Taylor be doing at ATI?

Fuz

 

[duffer]

Almost as important is to ask what did he do at MS? As far as I can tell he answered DX questions, gave talks and wrote articles, but didn't actually write code, or design DX features.

Still, given that Phil knew about the future graphics plans of all the different PC card vendors, it may be significant that he chose to work for ATI rather than another graphics company.

 

[MDolenc]

Philip Taylor was DirectX project manager at Microsoft.

 

[Sabastian]

Philip Taylor was DirectX project manager at Microsoft.

This looks like a very positive development for ATi. Surely this man will be able to provide ATi with some fantastic insight with regards to DX in the future. Interesting developement really.

 

[RussSchultz]

Surely this man will be able to provide ATi with some fantastic insight with regards to DX in the future.

Surely he won't.

Either the information he has:
a) is public knowledge, meaning he won't impart any edge
b) is not public knowledge, meaning he'll be under NDA. If he shares it, both he and ATI will get sued by somebody--either microsoft, or one of ATIs competitors.

Beyond that, the time frame where he would have private knowledge would likely be the stuff in the distant future, which is likely to change anyways by the time it became relevant.

He likely brings with him:
a) good managerial skills
b) contacts and goodwill within microsoft (assuming he left microsoft on good terms)
c) good understanding of the process in general.

 

[MDolenc]

This looks like a very positive development for ATi. Surely this man will be able to provide ATi with some fantastic insight with regards to DX in the future.

So you think that Jason Mitchell (careful I saw him around here ) and others can't do that? Many companies have their people pretty much literally AT Microsoft (they have @microsoft.com e-mails and they were even working within Microsoft campus until recently). ATI does this, NVidia does this and even a company I work for from time to time does this (In fact a friend of mine is there right now). Companies influence DirectX development through this people. All that Philip Taylor will bring to ATI is his experience. He can't tell them what will happen with DX in the future since it's up to ATI and NVidia to push DX forward. MS (more or less) only decides what will get supported and when will this happen.

 

[Dave Baumann]

So you think that Jason Mitchell (careful I saw him around here ) and others can't do that? Many companies have their people pretty much literally AT Microsoft (they have @microsoft.com e-mails and they were even working within Microsoft campus until recently).

I noticed that when I got a mail from him not so long ago as well.

 

[Sabastian]

Alright alright, I get it. I made an assumption that has turned out to be sorely wrong. Sorry. Why do you suppose he has left Microsoft for ATi? ATi must have made him an offer or something ..... at any rate I would suggest that it is a positive developement for ATi... err you would think so anyway.

 

[Ichneumon]

Yes.. Jason Mitchel used to work for ATI at Microsoft's campus... I don't know if he still does, but he worked out of an office there for at least a while.

 

[MDolenc]

I wonder what ATI will come up with... I mean why do they need that many top of the line software engineers? First Richard Huddy & Company from NVidia now Philip Taylor from MS... On the other hand, did anyone heard of any hardware guys moving from NVidia to ATI?

 

[LeStoffer]

I wonder what ATI will come up with... I mean why do they need that many top of the line software engineers? First Richard Huddy & Company from NVidia now Philip Taylor from MS...

I did kind of wonder about the same. They have got to have some nice things in the pipeline since people like Huddy and Taylor would make such a move. I would guess that it more than just a question about money; ATI must have convinced them about their high ambitions in order to attract these kinds of people.

 

[Ilfirin]

I wonder what ATI will come up with... I mean why do they need that many top of the line software engineers? First Richard Huddy & Company from NVidia now Philip Taylor from MS... On the other hand, did anyone heard of any hardware guys moving from NVidia to ATI?

Richard Huddy is awesome! All my favorite articles at developer.nvidia.com were written by him, when ATI hired him, their developer site started getting a lot more hits from me

 

[DemoCoder]

Wake me up when a serious developer leaves and joins ATI. A PM (product manager) is not the same as the guy writing the D3D library leaving. An actual engineer leaving is damaging to the company leaving, since getting a new guy up to speed after the brain drain is a problem. A PM or Technical support person? Might be good for dev relations, but it's just not the same. That's not to disrespect them, but there is a huge difference between an actual "down in the trenches" engineer, and a PM who writes powerpoints and email all day.

I mean, in most of the companies I've worked at, calling a PM a "Guru" is an oxymoron. These are the guys who talk to sales and marketing types, then run to the engineers to get an answer and while they are expected to simultaneously possess both technical and managerial skills, they are usually a "lightweight" on the tech side.

 

[Dio]

Phil Taylor is undoubtedly a guru. Anyone who's met him well knows that!