Ah, yes-- PowerPC death rumors. It seems like there's always some "PowerPC is going away" angst mixed into the Apple rumor gene pool, and that makes sense; the PowerPC is crucial to Apple's survival and success, yet its continued development is almost entirely out of Apple's control. So it's only natural for worries about the PowerPC's future to surface in the form of constant low-grade rumors about how IBM and Motorola are planning on cancelling the chip's development entirely. This time, The Register is claiming that their source (not "sources," mind you, but "source") says that the only reason the AIM consortium hasn't pulled the plug on PowerPC already is "contractual obligations." For that reason, Apple's rumored to be buddying up to-- wait for it-- Intel.

Now, we've all heard rumors about Apple moving to Intel chips in the past. Heck, not so long ago we were even hearing that Apple would soon be producing Windows-based Intel systems just to stay alive. That said, this current rumor is based on the fact that Mac OS X Server, and Mac OS X after it, is supposedly easily portable to other chipsets by virtue of being based on BSD Unix. If no one wants to make PowerPC's and the next Mac OS can be made to run on any iron, why not make the jump to Intel?

Why not, other than a total and utter loss of credibility, that is. The only reason we doubt that Apple's going to move the Mac platform to Intel unless they absolutely have no other choice is that they'd probably suffer a huge PR hit. After all, what about all that stuff about the G3 being "up to twice as fast" as a Pentium II? Would Apple really be able to shrug it all off with a "that was then, this is now" kind of attitude? The Register claims that Apple's move to Intel would begin with Mac OS X Server running on the Merced (Intel's interminably-delayed next-generation chip) in 2001 and the standard Mac OS X migrating in 2002 or 2003. Even that sounds a little suspect; why would Mac OS X take an extra year or two to migrate, when by then X Server will probably just be X with extra applications and utilities? Something smells funny in Chipville.