Apple is switching to Intel Processors

Posted on Jun 6, 05 11:08 AM PDT

After years of rumors, Apple has just announced that they will switch to Intel Processors by next year. Steve Jobs did the announcement himself during a Developer conference where he was also talking about Leopard, the next version of Mac OS.

"It's time for a brain transplant" he said. The reason invoked was performance. Despite Apple's claims that their PowerPC processors were the fastest on earth (according to their own benchmark), performance is the key factor for the change, and quite frankly I'm not surprised: I own a G5 and yes it could use a little help, CPU-wise.

Last week, it still had strong doubts about this switch (I was wrong) because it will involve a lot of hassle for both Apple and their customers, but I knew that Mac OS X was being tested on Intel's X86 architecture for a while. The X86 architecture has knocked out all its rivals and with Apple's switch, the PowerPC will have a hard time to evolve or even justify its existence.

In another subject, Xbox 360 uses a PowerPC. If by the time Xbox3 comes out this architecture does not exist anymore, they'll have to switch back to Intel again, and go through the compatibility pain again... ouch

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