According to C|Net, Apple Computer plans to announce next Monday that it’s switching its computers from PowerPC to Intel x86 chips. I’m skeptical but anything’s possible.
This isn’t a technical challenge for Apple; I’m sure that OS X already runs on x86 chips in Apple labs. The real issue is software. Unlike the switch from 68k to the much faster PowerPC, Apple is unlikely to be able to rely on a PowerPC emulator for the x86 to allow customers to run older applications on new hardware. So every third-party application will need to be recompiled and rebuilt. And then there’s hardware. Will Apple allow hardware clones?
Either C|Net has a huge scoop here or they’ll have egg on their face on Monday. This should be interesting.
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