Mark Papermaster

Early life and education

Mark D. Papermaster was born in 1961 and grew up in Galveston, Texas. Earning his Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Texas in Austin, in 1982 he began working at IBM in Vermont. He earned his Master of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Vermont In 1988.

Career

IBM (1982–2008)

After beginning his 26-year tenure at IBM in Vermont in 1982, in 1991 Promoted to vice president of IBM's Microprocessor Technology Development unit, he was then given oversight for the development of microprocessor and server technologies Wired reports that “Papermaster was a key player in developing the PowerPC chips used in [early] Macs.”

Papermaster moved from microprocessors to become vice president of the Blade Development Unit in October 2006. Becoming head of IBM's blade server unit gave him responsibility for “x86, POWER, storage blades, chassis, network electronics and associated ecosystem.” Also in 2006, IBM selected him to join two executive groups: its Integration & Values Team (I&VT) and its Technical Leadership Team, the latter of which focused on attracting talent.

Senior VP at Apple (2009–2010)

After being courted as a successor to iPod executive Tony Fadell, Papermaster accepted a position with Apple in 2008. Shortly afterwards, IBM filed a complaint alleging Papermaster had breached a one-year noncompete agreement. arguing that Apple had hired him for his management and engineering abilities, not for insider knowledge of IBM processors. Apple and IBM reached a settlement{{cite news |last= Helft |first=Miguel |date=August 7, 2010 |title=Executive Leaves Apple After iPhone Antenna Troubles

Papermaster joined Apple on April 24, 2009 as senior vice president of Mobile Devices and Devices Hardware Engineering. Reporting to Steve Jobs, he was given direct oversight of the iPod and iPhone engineering teams, including iPhone hardware development and the June 2010 rollout of the iPhone 4. Although the device proved popular, issues such as a slow release of a white version and reception flaws with the antenna resulted in controversy. The antenna design, a then-unusual device casing that acted as a signal receiver, had been green-lit in late 2009 by Steve Jobs. On August 7, 2010, The New York Times reported that Papermaster was leaving Apple for unconfirmed reasons.

VP at Cisco Systems (2010–2011)

In November 2010, Papermaster became vice president of the Silicon Switching Technology Group at Cisco Systems.

CTO and executive VP at AMD (2011–present)

On October 19, 2011, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announced that Papermaster had been appointed its senior vice president (SVP) of Technology & Engineering, as well as its chief technology officer (CTO). He was officially appointed to both roles on October 24, 2011. As SVP of the newly formed Technology & Engineering Group under former CEO Rory Read, Papermaster was given oversight for all of AMD's technology teams. He was also given oversight for all of AMD's products, “corporate technical direction,” and research and development,

One of his first orders of business was to restructure the CPU design team to build Zen, a new high performance x86 processor core. Under Papermaster, by early 2017 several other new lines of CPUs and graphic processors were under development as well, for example the data center processor EPYC series, which launched in June 2017 with AMD's new Zen (microarchitecture). Ryzen Threadripper high-end desktop processors released in the summer of 2017 also utilized Zen. Also in 2017, Papermaster announced that AMD would continue to develop hardware using both its new Vega graphics architecture and its older Polaris system. At that point he had been heading the company's push into using 7 nm processor nodes, announced as a key component in upcoming Zen and Navi-based processors.

Speaking and writing

Papermaster is periodically asked to comment on industry trends such as Moore's Law Plus, immersive technology, He has also written articles for publications such as Dark Reading, ET Tech, Forbes, IEEE Test & Design Magazine, Inc., and Network Computing.

He has also given talks at industry events, for example "How To Build Truly Great Products" at the Design Automation Conference in 2016 and “Evolving Embedded Systems in a Self-Directed World” at Embedded World in 2018. He also spoke at the 2016–2017 Techfest and was a keynote speaker at the Imagination Tech Summit in 2017. In 2017 he spoke at the Strategic Materials Conference, and he also gave a talk on Moore's Law Plus at the IEEE Industry Summit on the Future of Computing in 2017. In April 2018, he spoke at the Congress on the Future of Engineering Software.

Organizations

Papermaster is a member of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Olin College Presidents Council, and the advisory board at Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas. Also at the University of Texas, he has been on the school's electrical and computer engineering advisory council. In 2009, the University of Texas named Papermaster an ECE Fellow for his work with the university. He was included on the Forbes Technology Council as a contributor as of June 2016. In August 2017, he was announced as a new member of the advisory board of the CTO Forum.

Awards and honors

In 2025, Papermaster was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

References

References

1. (July 22, 2012). "Executive Biography - Mark Papermaster".
2. Advanced Micro Devices. (January 25, 2019). "AMD Strengthens Senior Leadership Team".
3. (August 9, 2010). "iPhone Executive Leaves". The Wall Street Journal.
4. Sibley, Lisa. (October 19, 2011). "AMD hires Mark Papermaster as senior VP, CTO". Silicon Valley Business Journal.
5. (April 2009). "Apple — Press Info — Bios — Mark Papermaster". Apple.
6. Chen, Brian X.. (April 30, 2009). "Apple Quietly Recruits Chip Designers for In-House Tech".
7. Austin Modine. (November 14, 2008). "Papermaster countersues IBM over Apple gig".
8. Chris Foresman. (November 13, 2008). "The Papermaster Chase: IBM exec was not Apple's first pick".
9. Gregg Keizer. (November 25, 2008). "Judge: Apple's new VP could cause 'irreparable harm' to IBM". [[Computerworld]].
10. Krazit, Tom. (January 27, 2009). "Papermaster settles with IBM, sets Apple start date".
11. Bessen, James. (October 17, 2014). "How Companies Kill Their Employees' Job Searches". The Atlantic.
12. Warman, Matt. (August 9, 2010). "Apple iPhone head leaves company". The Telegraph.
13. Lawson, Stephen. (November 12, 2010). "Cisco Hires Former IPhone Engineer Papermaster".
14. (19 October 2011). "AMD Names IBM, Apple Vet Papermaster to CTO Spot".
15. Hachman, Mark. (October 19, 2011). "AMD Names IBM, Apple Vet Papermaster to CTO Spot".
16. "Mark Papermaster".
17. Brian Caulfield. (February 22, 2012). "Forget Intel; Apple, Qualcomm, Samsung Grabbing AMD Employees".
18. Pressman, Aaron. (June 28, 2017). "Chipmaker AMD Makes a Big Bet on Brand-New Tech".
19. "Mark Papermaster". AMD.com.
20. (2 March 2017). "Making AMD Tick: A Very Zen Interview it Dr. Lisa Su, CEO". Anandtech.com.
21. Michael Moore. (June 20, 2017). "AMD - we're back, and taking the fight to Intel". IT ProPortal.
22. (May 16, 2017). "AMD Unveils Expanding Set of High-Performance Products and Technologies Propelling Next Phase of Growth". AMD.
23. Jason Evangelho. (April 9, 2018). "Radeon RX 500X Incoming: Polaris Refined Again?".
24. Rick Merritt. (July 24, 2017). "AMD's CTO on 7nm, Chip Stacks".
25. Joe Osborne. (September 5, 2016). "AMD's CTO: it's 'Moore's Law Plus' that will drive VR toward full immersion". [[TechRadar]].
26. Mark Papermaster. (April 13, 2017). "How computing will change amid challenges to Moore's Law". [[TechCrunch]].
27. Mark Papermaster. (May 5, 2018). "Silicon & Artificial Intelligence: The Foundation of Next Gen Data Security". Dark Reading.
28. Mark Papermaster. (December 29, 2016). "How AI will keep your data safe". ET Tech.
29. (May 13, 2016). "Changing Consumer-Technology Interactions: The Rise Of CyberSecurity And Data Privacy".
30. "Special Issue on 3D-Test". IEEE Design & Test Magazine (Volume 34, Issue 1).
31. Mark Papermaster. (August 13, 2001). "Mark Papermaster".
32. (April 20, 2018). "Blockchain and Its Implementation Challenges". Network Computing.
33. Christopher Calnan. (June 8, 2016). "Immersive tech ushers in new era, AMD exec says". [[Austin Business Journal]].
34. (April 4, 2018). "AMD Chief Technology Officer Mark Papermaster's Keynote at Embedded World 2018". AMD.
35. Nistha Balagopal. (December 18, 2016). "Not just for science buffs". [[DNA India]].
36. (March 1, 2017). "Imagination Tech Summit 2017 – "Future Forward: what do you need now to be successful in 2025?". Imagination Tech.
37. (June 14, 2017). "Materials Accelerating Innovation at SEMI Strategic Materials Conference". SEMI.
38. (2017). "IEEE Industry Summit on the Future of Computing". IEEE Rebooting Computer.
39. (April 12, 2018). "Agenda". COFES 2018.
40. "Executive Biography". AMD.
41. (April 19, 2009). "Mark Papermaster Named ECE Fellow". University of Texas at Austin.
42. Mark Papermaster. (June 28, 2016). "The Immersive Computing Era Starts Now: A Pervasive Computing Sequel".
43. CTO Forum Press Release. (August 9, 2017). "AMD SVP and CTO Mark Papermaster Joins CTO Forum Advisory Board". [[The Business Journals]].
44. "National Academy of Engineering Elects 128 Members and 22 International Members".