Apple opened its Worldwide Developer Conference on June 6 with news
that it planned to begin shipping Macs in 2006 with Intel
microprocessors at their cores. Citing Intel’s stronger "processor
roadmap," Apple CEO Steve Jobs added that by the end of 2007, every Mac
will feature an Intel chip.
What does this major architecture shift mean to anyone with a
PowerPC-based system? Not much now; Power Macs will be the last to be
upgraded (think Christmas 2007). But Apple has created a Developer
Transition Kit ( $999) that will let software developers ramp up
versions of their apps now to run on both PowerPC-based and Intel
-based Macs. (For more on this go to the Totems and Tools article written by Jim Feeley in this issue.)