The disastrous performance of chip-maker AMD in its most recent financial quarter has resulted in the resignation of its CEO, Hector Ruiz.

Last week, the company reported a quarterly loss of $1.19 billion, its seventh consecutive quarterly loss.

Ruiz, who now joins the board of directors, will be succeeded as CEO by president and chief operating officer Dirk Meyer.

AMD’s troubles began when its quad-core Opteron server chip, codenamed Barcelona, was severely delayed and contained flaws when it finally arrived in September 2007. This not only undermined AMD’s credibility but also squandered a performance head-start over arch-rival Intel.

Also damaging to AMD has been the acquisition of the handheld and digital television chip-making units of rival ATI, which it began in July 2006. In its most recent quarter, AMD was forced to downgrade the value of the ATI assets by $880 million.

AMD employees are unlikely to mourn the departure of Ruiz from the CEO spot. According to website Glassdoor.com, which collates testimonies from current and former employees of various large corporations, the outgoing AMD chief has an employee approval rating of just 8% – one of the lowest the site has recorded.

Ruiz is the second high-profile technology vendor CEO to have been shown the door this month. Diane Greene, co-founder and CEO of virtualisation powerhouse VMware, was ousted last week following a dispute with the board of directors over the company's strategic direction.

Further reading

AMD sinks deeper into the red

AMD to cut 10% of staff

AMD redefines processor metrics with Barcelona release