2010年8月9日 星期一

FW: Hardware News: [Slashdot] Chip Guru Papermaster Loses Signal At Apple [Aug 7 2010] -- Mark Papermaster has left his job as Apple's Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering


-------------------------------------------
???: Jamz Yaneza (RD-US)
????: 2010?8?9? ?? 03:15:08
???: Newsbank
??: Hardware News: [Slashdot] Chip Guru Papermaster Loses Signal At Apple [Aug 7 2010] -- Mark Papermaster has left his job as Apple's Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering
????????


Chip Guru Papermaster Loses Signal At Apple
Posted by kdawson on Saturday August 07, @10:39PM
from the heads-gotta-roll dept.
http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/08/07/2249247/Chip-Guru-Papermaster-Loses-Signal-At-Apple
ColdWetDog writes :
 
"Computerworld reports that Mark Papermaster has left his job as Apple's Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering.
 
See: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9180378/Apple_s_head_of_iPhone_engineering_out_after_Antennagate_?taxonomyId=12v
 
He was the senior executive in charge of engineering for the iPhone 4 and thus responsible in some unknown fashion for 'antennagate.'
 
His name may ring bells from previous coverage of his jump from IBM to Apple.
 
See: http://apple.slashdot.org/story/08/11/10/2048243/Former-IBM-Exec-Ordered-To-Stop-Working-For-Apple
 
From a brief blurb on Daring Fireball:

See: http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/08/07/papermaster.php
 
'From what I've heard, it's clear he was canned. Papermaster was a conspicuous absence at the Antennagate press conference. Inside Apple, he's "the guy responsible for the antenna" — that's a quote from a source back on July 23.
 
(Another quote from the same source: "Apparently the antenna guys used to have a big chip on their shoulder. No more.")'"

Update: 08/08 03:01 GMT by KD : Swapped out a registration-required NY Times link for a Computerworld one; corrected the direction of Papermaster's career move.
 
=================================================================
 
Apple hardware exec falls on sword
Don't let the antennagate hit you on your way out
By Rik Myslewski in San Francisco
Posted in Mobile, 8th August 2010 07:03 GMT
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/08/mark_papermaster_leaves_apple/
 
The Apple hardware exec reportedly responsible for the iPhone 4's much-maligned and equally much-defended antenna design has left One Infinite Loop.
 
See: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/16/jobs_denies_iphone_4_problems/
 
Don't, however, jump to the conclusion that Mark Papermaster is a victim of the iPhone 4 "antennagate" debacle. Remember, in his press conference of July 16 — an event from which Papermaster was conspicuouly absent — CEO Steve Jobs assured us all that "There is no antennagate."
 
Right.
 
The news that Papermaster is no longer on Apple's executive team comes from a report by The New York Times. That news organ reached Papermaster by mobile phone, but he "declined to comment" as to whether he jumped or was pushed.
 
See: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/technology/08apple.html?_r=2
 
His exit was confirmed by an Apple spokesperson, who told the NYT that the company's current Mac-hardware headman, Bob Mansfield, will be assuming Papermaster's responsibilities.
 
See: http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/mansfield.html
Papermaster's Cupertino sojourn was be brief, odd, and contentious. In early November 2008 he left his posts <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/31/apple_ibm_chipper_lawsuit/>  in IBM's blade server and PowerPC groups after 26 years at Big Blue to join the Cupertinians after Apple's iPod honcho Terry Fadell reduced his role <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/04/apple_tony_fadell/>  for "personal reasons".

Papermaster's move to Apple was stalled when IBM levied a non-compete lawsuit <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/31/apple_ibm_chipper_lawsuit/> . But in early 2009, after a "You sue Me? Well, I sue you <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/14/papermaster_countersuit_ibm_apple/> !" back-and-forth, Papermaster moved into One Infinite Loop.

His arrival in Cupertino puzzled many observers: was he there, as IBM said they feared, to jump-start an Apple move into servers? [Cue laugh track. — Ed.] Was he there for his PowerPC expertise, possibly to help guide mobile-processor efforts after Apple's acquisition <http://www.reghardware.com/2008/04/23/apple_buys_pa_semi/> of PowerPC-smart PA Semi?

But key members of PA Semi's brain trust bailed <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/21/google_buys_agnilux/> , and the A4 processors in the iPad and iPhone 4 were reportedly developed with heavy lifting from Intrinsity, the chipmakers that Apple gobbled up <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/27/apple_buys_intrinsity/>  this April. Can't have been much fun for Papermaster.

Perhaps, as the NYT suggests, "antennagate" was the last straw for Papermaster — or for his masters. Somebody knows, but nobody's talking. ®
Bootnote
Younger Reg readers my not fully appreciate the Soviet-style implications of the following quote from the NYT's Papermaster article, but those "of a certain age" might: "Mr. Papermaster, who was listed as an executive on Apple's Web site earlier Saturday, had vanished from the site later in the day."
Related stories
=================================================================
 
Executive Leaves After iPhone Trouble
By MIGUEL HELFT
Published: August 7, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/technology/08apple.html?_r=3&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1281272481-m8GvVJK3UfHQdzfha9mGsQ
Mark Papermaster, the Apple <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/apple_computer_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org> executive in charge of hardware for the company’s flagship iPhone <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/iphone/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier> , has left the company in the wake of widely reported problems with the antenna of the recently introduced iPhone 4.
It is not clear if Mr. Papermaster was ousted or left on his own accord.

Reached on his cellphone, Mr. Papermaster declined to comment.

In a statement, an Apple spokesman, Steve Dowling, confirmed Mr. Papermaster’s departure. Mr. Dowling said Mr. Papermaster “is leaving the company and Bob Mansfield, senior vice president of Macintosh hardware engineering, is assuming his responsibilities.”

Mr. Mansfield already oversees several technologies that are part of the iPhone, including the A4 chip, the retina display and touch screens, Mr. Dowling said.

Mr. Papermaster arrived at Apple in 2008, setting off a prominent battle with I.B.M. <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/international_business_machines/index.html?inline=nyt-org> , where in a 25-year-career he had risen to the top levels of management. I.B.M. sued Mr. Papermaster in federal court in an attempt to prevent him from joining Apple, saying that he had signed a noncompete agreement. The parties settled the case after Mr. Papermaster testified in court that he had not revealed any trade secrets.

When Steven P. Jobs <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/j/steven_p_jobs/index.html?inline=nyt-per> , the chief of Apple, introduced the iPhone 4, he hailed the design of its antenna, which is built into a steel band that encases the phone. But almost immediately after the iPhone 4 went on sale, consumers began to complain that when they touched a spot on the lower left section of the device, reception would decrease sharply, in some cases resulting in dropped calls.

The problems, and Apple’s clumsy response, turned into a public relations mess for the company. Apple first recommended that users hold the phone in a way that avoids contact with the lower left section of the device. The company later said it found a software problem with the signal meter that indicates cellphone reception. Embarrassingly, the company said the problem affected not only the iPhone 4, but also earlier models. While Apple fixed the problem, complaints about the antenna continued to mount.

After Consumer Reports shone a spotlight on the problems and said it could not recommend the iPhone 4, Apple called a press conference on July 16 where Mr. Jobs mounted an impassioned defense of the device. Mr. Jobs said other smartphones suffered from similar problems when cradled in certain ways, an assertion that was challenged by several of Apple’s competitors.

But in an effort to put the problem behind the company, Mr. Jobs offered free bumpers to all iPhone 4 customers. By insulating the antenna from human touch, the bumpers solve the reception problems. Mr. Jobs also said that the iPhone 4 was the most successful new product introduction in Apple’s history. He said complaints among customers were minimal and he accused the media of blowing the problem out of proportion.

Some observers were surprised that Mr. Papermaster was not present at the press conference, which in addition to Mr. Jobs included Tim Cook <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/timothy_cook/index.html?inline=nyt-per> , the chief operating officer, and Mr. Mansfield. Mr. Papermaster, who was listed as an executive on Apple’s Web site earlier Saturday, had vanished from the site later in the day.


=================================================================
張貼者： 於

沒有留言:

張貼留言

訂閱： 張貼留言 (Atom)