The potential acquisition of ATI Technologies Inc., a Canadian graphics company, by chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. was so secret that the project was at first code-named “Supernova,” and then “Go Big,” said Anil Kumar, a former McKinsey & Co. consultant who advised AMD on the deal. In discussions, AMD was referred to as “Los Angeles” and ATI was called “San Antonio,” he said.

But for months before the deal was announced in July 2006, Mr. Kumar testified, he had been discussing AMD’s plans with Mr. Rajaratnam. Mr. Kumar has testified that Mr. Rajaratnam had been paying him $500,000 a year for inside information, which was reinvested in Galleon through an account in India under his housekeeper’s name.

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Platforms and products is one of four new operating units created in this latest restructuring, which also birthed an advanced technology group, a marketing group and a consumer group. Why this particular arrangement is any better than AMD’s reorg of a year ago–which spawned the Central Engineering Organization and Computing Solutions Group–is anyone’s guess. AMD CEO Dirk Meyer says it will optimize AMD’s operations and drive the company toward sustained profitability and long-term success. But then he said that about the last one as well.

Oh, speaking of that last reorg, Randy Allen, the 24-year AMD veteran who figured so prominently in the company, is leaving. AMD (AMD) offered no explanation for his departure and there’s no word yet on where he’s headed. That said, some surmise that he may be following a path beaten by two of his former colleagues, Raja Koduri and Bob Drebin, who both fled AMD for Apple (AAPL)

Apple (AAPL) won’t say what it is exactly that Drebin’s going to work on, though it’s a safe bet it’s related to the multicore graphics processors in which he has his expertise. After all, Drebin’s the guy that, according to his AMD bio, “led the architecture and design of many of ATI award-winning graphics processors” and “was responsible for the design of the graphics chip used in Nintendo’s GameCube console.” That’s quite a CV and one that suggests he’ll jibe well with the rock-star chip design team Apple brought in-house with its April 2008 acquisition of boutique semiconductor design company, P.A. Semi.

What that team is working on, of course, is anyone’s guess. Perhaps something to power that high-definition, touchscreen e-book reader it’s rumored to be building…

Apple (AAPL) won’t say what it is exactly that Drebin’s going to work on, though it’s a safe bet it’s related to the multicore graphics processors in which he has his expertise. After all, Drebin’s the guy that, according to his AMD bio, “led the architecture and design of many of ATI award-winning graphics processors” and “was responsible for the design of the graphics chip used in Nintendo’s GameCube console.” That’s quite a CV and one that suggests he’ll jibe well with the rock-star chip design team Apple brought in-house with its April 2008 acquisition of boutique semiconductor design company, P.A. Semi.

What that team is working on, of course, is anyone’s guess. Perhaps something to power that high-definition, touchscreen e-book reader it’s rumored to be building…

Purchased in 2006 for 5.4 billion as a means of bolstering AMD’s position in the commercial desktop and mobile computing markets–two areas where the company had little success–ATI is as noteworthy for the impairment charges it brought the company as for its technologies. Since then, AMD (AMD) has taken $3.2 billion-worth of impairment charges related to the acquisition, and its market cap has slipped to $1.22 billion.

Clearly, the ATI deal has not proven to be the panacea for which AMD had hoped. And in these turbulent economic times, which are already playing havoc with its finances, the company is wise to divest itself of some ATI ballast. Better to shore up its finances and focus on its core microprocessor business than founder in a sea of impairment charges.