AMD has hired Samuel Naffziger, a high-ranking designer of Intel's Itanium processors, and eight of his Fort Collins, Colo.-based colleagues working on the high-end processor.

Naffziger, one of about 50 at Intel who held the rank of fellow, was director of Itanium circuits and technology. He joined the chipmaker in 2005 when Intel hired Itanium designers from HP, where Naffziger led the Itanium design team for eight years.

At AMD, he is a senior fellow and will work on design development, spokesman Phil Hughes said, declining to share further details about what he or the eight other Itanium engineers will do.

Naffziger's departure was reported by Real Wold Technologies.