Chuck S
June 6th, 2005, 02:16 PM
Today, at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, Steve Jobs officially announced that Apple is finishing its partnership with IBM and plans to use Intel processors, starting next year with lower-end computers and following in 2007 with higher-end computers, such as the PowerMac line-up.
Many questions arise after the shocking announcement, one of them being if Apple would allow Mac OS X to run on any computer equipped with an x86 microprocessor. If so, Microsoft would finally have a serious competitor (sorry Linux lovers) for its Windows operating system in the desktop space. Until now, computer users were required to buy Apple hardware if they wanted to use Mac OS X as an alternative to Windows XP.
This announcement by Apple also comes as a surprise after the three console makers, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, have chosen the PowerPC architecture to power their next-generation consoles; a trend that should be considered as a red alert for both AMD and Intel, the two chipmakers behind the x86 architecture. One could have expected Apple to embrace the Cell processor, an IBM joint-venture with Sony and Toshiba, rather than switching to Intel’s camp.
Many questions arise after the shocking announcement, one of them being if Apple would allow Mac OS X to run on any computer equipped with an x86 microprocessor. If so, Microsoft would finally have a serious competitor (sorry Linux lovers) for its Windows operating system in the desktop space. Until now, computer users were required to buy Apple hardware if they wanted to use Mac OS X as an alternative to Windows XP.
This announcement by Apple also comes as a surprise after the three console makers, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, have chosen the PowerPC architecture to power their next-generation consoles; a trend that should be considered as a red alert for both AMD and Intel, the two chipmakers behind the x86 architecture. One could have expected Apple to embrace the Cell processor, an IBM joint-venture with Sony and Toshiba, rather than switching to Intel’s camp.