Do you remember when we thought we'd never see an Intel processor anywhere near a Mac? People think the exact same way about AMD chips at the moment. But rumor has it that this most recent MacBook Air update was thisclose to leaving Intel outside.
Currently, all the MacBooks use Intel's Sandy Bridge processors — and seem to do just fine. But speculation over at Semiaccurate suggests that the most recent refresh of the MacBook range wasn't quite what we should have expected:
"If you are wondering why the Air wasn't really revamped much this last time, it is because you are looking at plan B. Plan A was basically a low power [AMD] Llano in an Air shell, and that would have been a really tasty machine."
It's debatable quite how tasty that machine would have been. The Llano chip does pack some punch when it comes to graphics processing, but a lot of reviews claim that it can be rather sluggish elsewhere.
It's not the first time that an AMD-Apple rumour has surfaced. Back in 2010 it was suggested that the MacBook Pro might feature AMD guts, though nothing ever came of it.
Still, if this rumour's true, it's interesting to hear that Apple isn't entirely wedded to Intel. [Semiaccurate via CNET]