 After weeks of rumours, Apple has announced that future versions of Mac OS X will run on Intel processors.
Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs, confirmed the decision, at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference. Steve Jobs also revealed that they had been developing OS X for the Intel-based PC for five years. This is a momentous change for Apple who, until now, had always used either IBM or Motorola based chips for their Macintosh computers.
Apple have changed their hardware architecture before, when they switched from Motorola's 68000 chips to the PowerPC processor, produced by IBM. A process that proved very successful, after many initial doubts, with older software being emulated under the new chip.
But this is a much bigger step in many ways and comes as the result of IBM being unable to deliver the speed enhancements that Apple promised to developers when the G5 chip was released. Apple Macs are used extensively in the design and graphics industry, where powerful computers are essential for processing high-resolution images using software tools such as Photoshop and QuarkXpress.
However, it is unclear to what degree OS X will be confined to Apple hardware - Apple has usually been loathe to open up the market to 'clone' manufacturers and is unlikely to start doing so now. Additionally, there is the issue of converting software to run under the new chips. OS X is a unix based operating system, which runs on both Macs and Intel-based PCs, but there is expected to be some rewriting of some applications.
Graphics software company Adobe, has already announced that they will be supporting the new Intel-based Macs. As have Microsoft.
Join in the discussions in the Mac forums.
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