NVIDIA’s GM of Mobile Business Unit Departs for Greener Pastures

With the computer industry shifting heavily to mobile systems, analysts are keeping a close eye on turnover in the mobile departments of the top companies. It’s one way (though not always an accurate one) to see which way the winds are blowing in the industry. So, it’s a little unsettling for Nvidia watchers to see Mike Rayfield, Nvidia’s mobile business department general manager leaving for a new gig.

Rayfield joined Nvidia in 2005 and has been leading Nvidia’s efforts to expand from gaming-friendly GPUs to chips for mobile devices. Nvidia has been making waves with its Tegra 3 dual-core and quad-core chips, which run phones and tablets. Not surprisingly, considering the company making them, Tegra chips are touted as bringing strong graphics capabilities to mobile devices.
 

So, where is Rayfield headed? That’s not clear yet, but Nvidia confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that Rayfield is indeed leaving for another company. Nvidia is facing off against different competition in the mobile market, including Texas Instruments. That company recently hung onto its lucrative position as the processor supplier for the Amazon Kindle Fire, which Nvidia was reportedly gunning for. It will be interesting to see where he pops up, and who replaces him. For now, Nvidia hasn’t made an announcement.