Ronak Singhal, Intel senior fellow and chief architect of Xeon products, will leave the company by the end of the month, as first reported by CRN and confirmed to Tom's Hardware. Singhal appears to be the second chief architect of Xeon products to depart the company in less than a year. His departure emphasizes the deep restructuring under chief executive Lip-Bu Tan, though it remains to be seen who will be responsible for defining the future of Xeon CPUs.
Singhal's departure from Intel just eight months after he succeeded Sailesh Kottapalli as chief architect of Xeon products highlights the turmoil at Intel in general and the company's Data Center Group in particular. Sailesh Kottapalli left in January to join Qualcomm's renewed server CPU initiative, whereas Justin Hotard, general manager of DCG, left the company to become chief executive of Nokia in February. Hotard succeeded Sandra Riviera in early 2024 as Riviera chose to become chief executive of Altera, which was spun off later that year (Riviera was replaced this August). A few days ago, Intel appointed Kevork Kechichian as the head of DCG.
