14 DAY TRIAL // AppleInsider has been told by reliable sources that Apple has contracted its new processor partner, Intel, to design the new mother board for the next generation of Power Macs.
It would seem Intel's Oregon facilities have been working on this since late October after Apple turned to Intel to help with the deadlines imposed by the accelerated transition from Power PC processors to Intel chips. Intel is said to have discreetly formed an "Apple Group" consisting of both marketing and engineering personnel.
With Apple racing to be one of the first, if not the first to use the new Intel processors in the new Macs, human resources in the engineering labs in Cupertino have been worn thin, sources report. With Intel designing (which might actually turn out to be designing and manufacturing) the new Power Mac motherboards, Apple is likely to remain on track and start shipping the first Power Mac models during the third quarter of 2006.
"It's likely, but not confirmed, that the new Power Macs will adopt Intel's next-generation desktop processor, code-named Conroe, also expected to ship around the same time. Unlike Intel's Pentium 4 processors and derivatives, Conroe will not use the company's NetBurst architecture and instead will be based on a completely new architecture, sources say," reports AppleInsider
"Apple's decision to work with Intel Oregon on the Power Mac design may also have its costs benefits. Mark Margevicius, an analyst for Gartner Research, said any effort by Apple to pass-off its motherboard designs to Intel would help reduce the costs to manufacturer Macs and result in lower prices for the consumer."
The aforementioned analyst also seems to have fueled rumors of the relationship between Apple and Intel going to the next step? namely the development on "a custom microprocessor chip-set that would appear only in Apple systems."
Of the entire report, one thing is totally unquestionable, and that is that Apple will remain in control of the external design for the new Power Mac models.