Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) hired former Apple executive Mark Papermaster to work on “chips for switches.” Papermaster used to be the SVP of Devices Hardware Engineering. Papermaster also worked at IBM from 1982-2008. Before leaving IBM, he was the VP of IBM’s blade server division.

[Drebin]
About six months ago, Apple hired Mark Papermaster as the role of the Senior VP of Devices Hardware Engineering. Papermaster’s former employer IBM filed a lawsuit against him for violating a noncompete agreement. THe outcome was that Papermaster would be able to join Apple under the terms that he would have to wait to join the company. Papermaster’s first day was this past Friday and he reports directly to Steve Jobs.

Recently the iPod/iPhone company hired Bob Drebin, a former graphics engineer at AMD. Drebin worked in a similar position at ATI Technologies before that. Drebin is now a Senior Director at Apple and he was responsible for the graphics chip being used in the Nintendo GameCube today. Drebin worked at Pixar in the Computer R&D division for 4 years back in the mid to late 1980′s. He was part of the spin-off from Lucasfilm.

[via CNET]