14 DAY TRIAL // It seems the rumors on Apple?s intention to give up on IBM?s PowerPC and go for Intel?s solution had a shred of truth.
According to CNET News.com, Apple plans to move lower-end computers like the Mac Mini to Intel chips in mid-2006 and higher-end models such as the Power Mac in the middle of 2007.
Considering that Mac OS X is based on a variant of Unix, FreeBSD, that also works on x86 chips, no matter how crazy this migration might sound, technically speaking, the project is feasible.
Referring to the software complications this change might generate, Kevin Krewell, editor in chief of the Microprocessor Report, said: "It's going to be a horrendous challenge for the software developers who just completed the transition to OS X from OS 9."
Our opinion is that if Jobs and his gang from Cupertino succeed in implementing Intel processors in Mac Minis and Power Macs and also manage to provide applications for them, Gates and his gang from Redmond will be in a lot of trouble, the dual-core 64 bit processors and Tiger operating system being a deadly combination to Microsoft.