When you think of Intel, you think of one thing, right? No, not the Pentium II strapped to a snail's back. No, not a flaming Bunnyman, either. Let's rephrase the question: when most people think of Intel, what do they think of? Chips! Processors! That's what they make, and that's what they do. Okay. Now when you think of Motorola, what's the first thing that pops into your head? Sure, if you're a rabid Mac fanatic, it might be the PowerPC, but to most people (even us!), Motorola means cellular phones. Let's face it: the PowerPC is not Motorola's bread and butter. Heck, it's probably not even their after-dinner mint, or the lemony-fresh water in their finger bowl. Otherwise we'd have seen at least one PowerPC commercial over the years, mixed in among the Pentium ad frenzy.

So, what if Motorola were to spin off their semiconductor division? According to Mac OS Rumors, that's exactly what might happen soon-- the group that designs and manufactures the PowerPC might be split off into its own independent unit. The operative word here is "might," but it's too intriguing a possibility not to consider. Imagine a company whose sole focus was the PowerPC architecture and how it could be improved. They'd have room to move without having to worry about seeing half their budget get diverted to make a revolutionary new pager. The PowerPC could theoretically get even faster even sooner. And who knows? Maybe Apple could even buy the whole company in a few years, directing PowerPC development with an eye towards Mac-specific performance improvements. It's a fun idea.

The other side of the coin, however, is that a spun-off company might not necessarily have the sheer muscle of a giant like Motorola. In particular, we're thinking of Exponential, the company who did nothing but work on a new kind of PowerPC processor-- one that was supposed to blow the doors off of anything that could come out of Motorola for years to come. But the reality was that Exponential's chips were late, and when they did show up, they weren't actually all that much faster than traditional PowerPC's made by Motorola and IBM. Plus, they gave off enough heat to let you use your computer as an Easy-Bake Oven. So "smaller and more focused" doesn't necessarily equal success. That caveat aside, we admit that we're actually pretty optimistic about the possibilities of a "PowerPC, Inc." Who knows? Maybe one of these days we'll actually see an ad touting the power of the PowerPC chip-- and not from Apple.