Apple's newest hire may mean the company is looking to strengthen its position in the graphics market. Bob Drebin, AMD's former CTO for its ATI Graphics Product Group, is now on board with Apple as a senior director, although what he's directing remains a mystery.
According to Mr. Drebin's LinkedIn profile, he left AMD in January 2008 and joined Apple this year, which may have been a contractual requirement with AMD to avoid potential conflict of interest concerns.
There's no word on exactly what Mr. Drebin will be involved with during his stay at Apple, but some kind of involvement with the iPhone and iPod line up seems like a reasonable fit. His experience with graphic chip design will likely come in handy as uses its acquisition of PA Semi to develop its own chips for handheld devices.
[Thanks to the Inquirer for the heads up.]