Rumours persist Apple developing AMD projects

The ungrateful so-and-sos ditched Motorola and IBM in the past, and each and every time a new vendor was greeted with hails of praise, only to be dumped when circumstances dictated.

The rumours are still circulating that Apple has a secret project bubbling on its back burner. But bear in mind that Intel managed to cheese off every major vendor with Apple getting the preferred treatment for Merom availability. And if, as the rumours run, Apple is thanking Intel for all its help and money by developing hardware for Fruity Company, well that's the way it goes because a chip vendor these days is nothing that special.

The tale runs that Apple wants to have a second source for its CPUs, and use a company that will build "platforms" for all. Even humble Nvidia is hot in the running for making chipset for second generation Macs with Intel and AMD CPUs inside. The integrated graphics performance and stability of Mac mini just ain't cutting it, and Steve Jobs hates to eat his own words.

Well, we'll see. But you can rest assured that just like the old days with Dell, AMD folk have visited Cupertino and inscribed their name in the visitors' book. No doubt Intel people already know that. But what can they do? They're just suppliers these days. µ