[kman42]

What's this guy been smoking?

http://www.smarthouse.com.au/smartstuff/computing/1341

Quoted here:

Apple set to go Intel

August 2003

By David Richards

Apple is set to announce an Intel based PC that will run on an Apple operating system.




The first system is expected to shown at Macworld San Francisco in January 2004 according to an Apple US source. The initial plan will involve Apple offering both existing RISC processor systems and an Intel based system with the RISC processor from IBM system being phased out as new software is developed. An original idea to release a duel platform MAC has been scrapped according to Apple insiders in San Francisco.



Software companies like Adobe, who develop for the Mac platform and Intel based system have already been briefed on the proposed move. One victim of the move could be Apple’s relationship with Microsoft. Currently Microsoft develops the Office suite of programs for the Mac platform however Microsoft are not happy with sales and have asked Apple to invest in further development of the Mac Office offering.



This could trigger a move by Apple to offering the Star Office suite of software from Sun particularly if Microsoft refuses to develop for an Intel based PC running a Mac operating system



If Apple were to go solely with the Intel based system the biggest problems would be that every existing Mac program would have to be recompiled to work under Intel. For new versions of current programs that would be fairly simple, but for older software it would not be worthwhile.



By releasing an Intel based system Apple will be able to offer the best of both worlds.



A gradual adoption by Apple of the Intel architecture would give time for the costs to drop and software to be upgraded. Eventually all Macs would be Intel.



An Apple source told SmartHouse Magazine “Apple and Intel have been in discussions for a while. We are looking at delivering a series of solutions that run on Intel's Itanium chip. The issue right now are software related as a great deal of code will have to be re written for both the Mac operating system and the Intel Itanium chip”. They added “This initiative is will happen, but when depends on how quickly the software issues are resolved”.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Should we even bother with this one?

[Jan Van Boghout]

Yawn.

How many times a month does this come up? At least the Apple PDA rumors aren't as persistent as they used to be

[Spheric Harlot]

No.

[MacNStein]

*checks calendar*

It's Sept 1st, not April 1st. Jumped the gun a bit, didn't they? Did give me a chuckle while drinking my coffee though.

[dlefebvre]

There's still hope!
If it runs on Intel, it means OS X will one day run on my Commodore 64...

[proton]

Come on guys, you know you've been missing the Apple moving to Intel story. It's been a month or two since we last had it, so it was about time. Now how long until beleaguered Apple is going broke unless they license the OS to clone manufacturers... the writing's on the wall.

Ahhh, it's just like the good old days

- proton

[MacGorilla]

I heard they ported Mac OS X to IBM's new PowerPC 970 chip. Its a 64-bit chip.

[Mafoo]

Steve J: "I know, we just spent years with IBM developing our next generation processor and an architecture to go with it - and were finnaly getting it out the door, why dont we just use Intel chips in all our desktops!"

Humm, do we think the guy's article got lost in the post 6 months ago? or a year, 2, 3?

I think the only place we could/will see x86 computers are in 20+ processor machines for hight level enterprise servers that probably occupy the same space as a 46u rackmount using amd hammer processors.

nothing new

--mafoo

[khufuu]

Originally posted by MacGorilla:
I heard they ported Mac OS X to IBM's new PowerPC 970 chip. Its a 64-bit chip.

[Jim_MDP]

Originally posted by proton:
... the writing's on the wall.

Ahhh, it's just like the good old days

- proton

Hey, I haven't seen a 'writing's on the wall' story in a year or more.

Thanks for the memory, Proton.