Apple, after an amazimg 11 years with IBM, is to ditch their chips in favor for Intel. The will no doubt have heads spinning to question of "why?". While prices will go down on a lot of Mac over the next 2 years as the transition takes shape, questions remain.

- Is apple going to be x86?
- MS on a Mac?
- The dredded Prescott core? Or revision? In a mac?
- IBM?

LINKAGE HERE to C|Net. Batten down the hatches and fasten your seat belts...going to be a bumpy 2 years.

Quote: Apple has used IBM's PowerPC processors since 1994, but will begin a phased transition to Intel's chips, sources familiar with the situation said. Apple plans to move lower-end computers such as the Mac Mini to Intel chips in mid-2006 and higher-end models such as the Power Mac in mid-2007, sources said. The announcement is expected Monday at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, at which Chief Executive Steve Jobs is giving the keynote speech. The conference would be an appropriate venue: Changing the chips would require programmers to rewrite their software to take full advantage of the new processor. IBM, Intel and Apple declined to comment for this story.

Attached Thumbnails

 

Wow, thats amazing and unexpected. I kinda figured Mac would stay tuff till the end.

Whats IBM gonna do?

IBM is going to make alot of money as they make chips for amd and intell and also there cpus are in the next gen consoles

Since when did IBM make AMDs and Intels' Chips? If anything IBM will loose out on profit because their main CPU line will be shattered.

Quote: Originally Posted by nev_payne Since when did IBM make AMDs and Intels' Chips? If anything IBM will loose out on profit because their main CPU line will be shattered.

IBM develops and sells the machinery that Intel and AMD use.

Ahhh...my bad. In either case, whos gonna buy their processors?

Quote: Originally Posted by nev_payne Ahhh...my bad. In either case, whos gonna buy their processors?

Who cares? Their production was so limited anyways it was a break even affair. I don't think IBM lost money, but they were only running to keep their finger in the pie. Hell IBM buys about as many Intel chips a year as they sell I think.

LOL! Great find.

If the CPU's are x86, does this mean we could be able to run MacOS on standard x86 PC's?

That is quite a surprise to be honest, LoL and I liked the evil inside in that pic .

Quote: Originally Posted by bazorama That is quite a surprise to be honest, LoL and I liked the evil inside in that pic .

made by yours truely thought id spice up the news a little even though i cant post in the news thread anymore.

[IMG]http://www.forumspile.com/****-Meter.gif[/IMG]
I'll believe it when Jobs says it. Nobody's gotten official word from any of the companies involved. And, even if this is the case, it simply means that intel will start fabbing PPC chips. Apple pretty much owns the rights to PPC, remember, motorola used to make their chips, then they switched to IBM. Same chips, its just that IBM could meet the demand that motorolla couldnt. Even if they did switch to intel for fab, IBM will do fine considering they're making the chips for all three next gen consoles. I'm sure even the gamecube surpassed Mac sales this year (pulled that outa my ass, dont quote me on it). Apple is NOT going to go x86... This has been posted on /. and fark, and everyone pretty much called BS without official word.

Quote: Originally Posted by Spectrum If the CPU's are x86, does this mean we could be able to run MacOS on standard x86 PC's?

Probably but for now, u can stil use pearpc to emulate OSX.

Quote: Originally Posted by Dr3w Probably but for now, u can stil use pearpc to emulate OSX.

I don't why you keep mentioning PearPC as if it's god, but PearPC takes 4 hours to install on a fast machine. It has no sound, no networking, and runs at 1/15th of the speed of the machine.

Quote: Originally Posted by Spectrum I don't why you keep mentioning PearPC as if it's god, but PearPC takes 4 hours to install on a fast machine. It has no sound, no networking, and runs at 1/15th of the speed of the machine.

Because thats as good as you're gonna get if you want OSX on x86 architecture.

Quote: Originally Posted by Spectrum I don't why you keep mentioning PearPC as if it's god, but PearPC takes 4 hours to install on a fast machine. It has no sound, no networking, and runs at 1/15th of the speed of the machine.

Ive never mentioned it before ? i know its 1/15th the speed but its better then nothing at all at the moment, and all im doing is trying to help out.