AMD guts PR team; move portends more changes

We knew yesterday's news of mass layoffs at AMD would involve lots of people—roughly 1,400—losing their jobs around the globe, never a happy development. We understood the situation to be wide-ranging when news filtered in of some executive layoffs, including marketing guru Patrick Moorhead and graphics product manager Carrell Killebrew, whose role in the RV870's development was famously chronicled at AnandTech. What's become clear in the hours since the announcement is that some parts of the company were definitely hit harder than others.

One of the areas hardest hit is the relatively high-visibility public relations team, which has been reduced to a shell of its former self. We've worked with AMD's PR and reviews team extensively over time, of course, and happen to know quite a few of the people who worked there. All evening and into this morning, the tweets, emails, IMs, and Facebook posts have kept coming ...