I just read on Mac NN that Apple is moving to Intel processors. What the Fk. Excuse my profanity, but everyone knows that Intel makes the worst computer chips in the world. I just don't know what to say. I guess I better buy a G5 PPC before I can't get one anymore. Well its after 12 PM where I am so its safe to start cracking bears in denial of this absolute insanity!

I just wanna puke....
-maestro :evil: :angry:

It's a rumor that's been flying around the last week or two. There are some people who's initial knee-jerk reaction to the fact that Jobs has met with people at Intel was that Apple will be switching to Intel processors for the Mac. I read one that even suggested that Apple might be just tapping Intel as another manufacturer of the PPC processor. Personally? I really doubt it.

Intel can make a LOT of other chips, so assuming that it MUST be about the Mac processors is a bit much. There's a pretty good article covering the bases and linking articles on both sides of things over at MacWorld.

The WWDC is tomorrow, so we'll find out - he does have a flair for the dramatic, so could he be dropping a bomb on us? (somebody set us up the bomb) Perhaps. But I tend to agree with the camp that thinks he's talking about something else with Intel, and hopefully there's some kind of new product on the horizon.

I'll wait until it comes from the horses mouth until I even speculate on this one.

what the hell, I love speculation...

I think that apple could be meeting with Intel to discuss chips for something else. Maybe a mobile line of products or something similar. As for main processing. No one at Apple is stupid enough to switch to intel. Their chips are just too cheap. Now, if it had been AMD, I might be thinking otherwise.

Just my 3cents.

He might have chosen intel for some non-mac related product, like a PDA or something. And at the same time signal IBM, that they aren't the only chip producer in the world.

It do sux, that microsoft is able to get multiple core chips and apple isen't. I know it's not exactly the same kind of cpu, but still... IBM bastards :angry:

Okay....well the only way to be sure is to wait. But in reality its probably true in some
respects. I truelly doubt its for a different product. What line they will break into i dont know.
At first I too thought it was to get IBMs ass in gear, but maybe it just isnt gonna get there. Apple
may just be getting forced into this one by means out of its control. God help us. Ill be watching
tomorrow to see whats up. I'm still nervous about it.
-maestro

At least when I by a hardware product for my Mac I know its going to work. Lets hope it stays
that way.

So now its WWDC day and apparantly the WSJ has "confirmed" that Apple has established a 2-year Intel transition roadmap.

I still don't believe that this information is correct. I believe that Apple is going to announce the use of Intel StrongARM processors in a new product line. I also consider an announcement that Intel is joining the Apple/IBM/Freescale parntnership more believeable. Regardless of what i think is going to happen, I would welcome the switch to Intel processors. IBM is slacking on R&D of the G5 processor. Nearly all of Apple's product line still uses the G4 processor. No doubt, Apple will receive better pricing, better supplies, and just as good/better R&D. Not to mention, Intel spends a boatload on co-marketing, so Apple can afford to advertise their computers more.

We are hours away from the announcement, and I wonder how Apple always manages to create drama around every keynote speech

I found this of significat interest. It's from 2002, but the major themes of the discussion of the past week are all lined up already, 3 years ago. So this has been brewing for a while.

Just to quote what I thought was the most relevant section:
"But a switch to Intel or Advanced Micro Devices Inc. processors is probably not in the cards for tomorrow's Macs, sources said. Such a move would require a massive revision of Apple's closed hardware architecture and a fundamental rethinking of its business model, which is founded on tight integration between its proprietary system software and hardware. Apple would have to also coax most of its third-party developers to rewrite their applications from the ground up in the company's Cocoa application environment."

The bolding is mine, but I think that's a major issue. Like it or not, Apple is a business first and formost, and a restructuring of that size would be a big deal.

Jobs goes on at 10am PT, 1pm ET. I'm eager to see what's going on.

its not inconceavable that Apple would contract Intel to produce PPC architecture chips, Apple have a large stake in the PPC specs and Intel have a lot of production capacity and some serious R&D money behind them. Intel allready make a variety of chips not just x86 stuff. I'm still not convinced but it dosn't nessceraly mean that we are going to be running PC boxes by next year, Apple isn't likley to move to an entirly X86 based system with comodity motheboards and components for the simple reason that their money is in the hardware, and a significant reason apple system "just work" is less driver haseles compared to the thousands of bits of equipment that Windows supports.

Well live coverage has started. Heres a pretty good live text feed

http://www4.macnn.com/macnn/wwdc/05/index.html