Gee, it sure feels good not to have Apple's supply of high-end chips tethered completely to Motorola anymore, doesn't it? Don't get us wrong, it's not that we disliked Motorola or anything, it's just that... well... there were some "reliability issues" when it came to delivering the goods. Which is to say that, at certain times, Apple probably would have had better luck whittling G4s by hand from a nice block of wood than actually squeezing a chip or two out of Motorola's plants. Thank the deities of silicon that IBM is shaping up to be a much more dependable partner in that regard.

Now, maybe we're just suppressing hurtful memories, here, but we don't recall Motorola being systematically late with development or delivery of processors to Apple until the G4 problems started popping up in the late '90s. So if Motorola was a reliable source that eventually turned sour, where's the guarantee that the same thing won't one day happen with IBM? What if, six months down the line, all of a sudden the G5 supply dries up and we all relive the lurking horror of a chipless existence? Because we're not sure we can live through something like that again. The phase "suicide pact" is starting to hover at the forefront of our minds. Also the phrase "huge burrito," but that's probably just because we skipped lunch.

Well, maybe this will bring you some peace of mind: according to a DigiTimes article (found by way of The Register), IBM has been outsourcing some PowerPC production to Samsung lately. "But AtAT," you whine annoyingly (and man is that an irritating habit), "what about that super-nifty fabrication plant IBM built to crank out G5s which is plastered all over Apple's site with captions like 'Swell FOUPS'? Can Samsung really turn out a quality product, or will our G5s turn into cheap third-world knockoffs?" Calm down, Beavis-- IBM didn't outsource G5 production. The PowerPCs Samsung is making are 180-nanometer chips, which means they're definitely not G5s; they must be some sort of G3s, which are no longer used in any Apple products, so any concerns you might have about Samsung's production quality are moot.

Unless, of course, Samsung wants to develop its own PowerPCs; according to The Register, "Samsung is interested in IBM's intellectual property, which may mean it's looking at becoming a PowerPC licensee. That would add a third chip maker to the platform." Woo-- Motorola, IBM, and Samsung? Sounds like there's the slimmest of chances that Apple may have another option if IBM winds up catching whatever it was that Motorola came down with when its production yields went through the floor. The more the merrier, we say. Come on in, the water's fine!