Reports have confirmed that, although the Mac OS X 10.6.2 update isn’t out yet for Snow Leopard, it does kill support for the Intel Atom processor. Mac OS X running on this architecture can only be what is known as a “Hackintosh” (a non-Apple computer running Mac OS X by means of hacks), as Apple hardware doesn’t include the Atom processor, be it the notebooks, or the desktop Macs.

Reported as highly important news for Hackintosh users who have hacked Atom-based netbooks to run Snow Leopard, a blogger says Mac OS X 10.6.1 is as far as Hackintoshes can go for now – Mac OS X 10.6.2 (currently in development) is dubbed as a “killer” of Atom support for hacked Mac OS X users. Similarly, Mac OS X 10.5.9 (whenever it’s out) may also include the road block.

The original report confirming the “death” of Atom in 10.6.2 stems from Stell’s Blog, which writes that, “In the current developer build of 10.6.2, Apple appears to have changed around a lot of CPU related information. One of the effects of this is Apple killing off Intel’s Atom chip.” Mac OS X 10.6.2 Build 10C531 was seeded to developers last week and they were asked to continue to focus on graphics drivers, as well as on TrackPad preferences and the ability to create virtual machines.

The report also includes options (alternatives) for those enjoying the benefits of using a hacked computer with Mac OS X installed. One of those is, “Stay[ing] with Leopard 10.5.8 (10.5.9 might have the same effect as 10.6.2),” the blog’s author says. “Stay with Snow Leopard 10.6.1,” is another option / restriction, one that shouldn’t be too hard to endure for now, since 10.6.2 isn’t even out yet. As a last resort, if the user simply can’t resist updating to 10.6.2, they can “either [use] the stock 10.0.0 kernel or use modded Snow kernels,” another piece of advice on behalf of Stell goes.

OSX Daily chimes in saying, “You can’t help but suspect this move is Apple’s attempt at shutting down the growing and popular Hackintosh Netbook community, since Apple has no product line that runs the Atom itself.”

Softpedia would also consider the possibility that Apple is just focusing on optimizing Snow Leopard for customers and current Apple-branded hardware. The Mac maker could simply be changing things without even thinking about other processor architectures, since it doesn’t have to. In other words, support for the Atom processor on Hackintoshes may, or may not have been killed on purpose.