[culturestate]

> Doubt he'll go back to a place he's been before unless he thinks the landscape has changed enough he can have a really big impact again

He did two separate stints at AMD, and if the rumors of Apple switching the Mac to the A-series are true (which they probably are) then there will be some very interesting problems to solve over the next few years.

[schappim]

Also the timing w/ WWDC coming up and rumours of an Intel → ARM switch.

[majewsky]

If Apple switches Macs to ARM this or next year as rumored, all the interesting problems w.r.t. chip design must have been solved at this point.

[culturestate]

You could make this same argument for any sufficiently mature architecture, but the reality is that there's always something new around the corner. I can't imagine the processor in an eventual ARM-based Mac Pro will look much like the one in the first ARM-based MacBook, you know?