IBM is moving to open its chip technology to other firms in an effort to increase demand for its chip products. Big Blue is the maker of Apple’s G5 chips and is partnering with companies such as Sony on other chip-related products and products.

Is this good news for Apple? I think so. The more IBM technology used in mainstream solutions the more Apple is able to create popular product and technology solutions.

Sounds like a good thing to me.  Hopefully, Apple will be able to avoid chip supply problems like they had with Motorola.  Plus all the game consoles are at or moving to PowerPC chips.

Very interesting.

From Apple’s perspective, this is a very positive development. By opening the doors to other designers, Apple can take advantage of these improvements to the Power line for their own chips. They may also be able to take advantage of chips coming from these new facilities, to reduce potential supply issues by buying chips from these partner companies. This is also a benefit for Motorola’s spin-off semiconductor division, which pretty much got snubbed on the move to IBM as the major supplier for chips. Whether they can take advantage of this new co-operation without screwing up like they did on the G4 is anyone’s guess though.

I am curious as to whether this means more G5-based linux boxes. That would be a great boost for companies like IBM and Yellow Dog, as well as for the PPC Linux movement in general. If there is a rise in PPC Linux boxes, It’ll be interesting to see how long Apple can resist the potential for 3rd party MacOS X compatible G5’s.