Mac users hoping to boot Microsoftis upcoming Windows Vista on their Intel-based Macs are in for a let down: Vista will not properly support the new Intel hardware architecture. The problem, according to PC Pro, is that only the 64-bit version of Windows Vista will support EFI, and the Intel-based Macs are all 32-bit machines.
EFI, or Extensible Firmware Interface, is the hardware component that manages the new Macis startup process until the operating system can take over. The 32-bit version of Vista will continue to rely on the much older BIOS when it launches. The BIOS hardware layer is something the Mac has never used or supported.
Without support for EFI, Windows will still have to run in an emulation environment on the Mac, like Virtual PC or WinTel, just as it always has.