“IBM is definitely committed to the POWER architecture that is at the heart of the PowerPC 970 used in the iMac and PowerMac. Witness the Power Everywhere play by IBM as well as the fact that all three next-generation consoles will be using CPUs based on the architecture. On the other hand, it seems that the PPC 970 has not worked out so well for Apple. Remember the now-infamous prediction by Steve Jobs in June 2003? 3.0GHz in 12 months. 24 months later and IBM is still only 70 percent there. Not only that, but cooling issues have left the PowerBook still using the bandwidth-throttled PPC 74xx (G4) line,” Bangeman writes.
“Intel would offer Apple instant brand recognition and credibility, an ample supply of CPUs, and even the option of marketing Mac OS X as an x86 alternative to Windows. While I’m quite fond of my Dual 2.5GHz Power Macintosh G5, the thought of having a pair of Pentium D 840s (or better yet, some dual-core Opterons) in there is intriguing. And don’t get me started on a Centrino Aluminum PowerBook,” Bangeman writes.
“On the flip side, it would require a big commitment on the part of its developers and might alarm some people who have made a significant investment in PowerPC Mac hardware. For the next few years, the company would likely need to maintain builds of Mac OS X for both architectures, as would application developers,” Bangeman writes. “At this point, I think it’s within the realm of possibility—even likely—but I’m not 100 percent sold. We’ll find out for sure after the weekend.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The fact that nobody can seem to fully accept the Apple Mac with Intel Inside story, tells just how big and historic such an announcement would be — if it happens. We expect there would be some major twists to an Apple-Intel deal, not a straight “all Macs will run on Pentiums by 2007” announcement from Jobs this Monday.
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