Apple's Mac OS 10.6.2: Have No Doubt, Intel's Atom CPU Is Out

The Hackintosh (aka OSx86, i.e. running Mac OS X on generic PC hardware) phenomenon is something I’ve been closely following since Apple announced its move from PowerPC to x86 CPUs in mid-2005. Long-time readers might remember that a year ago I planned on converting a MSI Wind U100 netbook into a tiny, totable Mac; other more pressing obligations have delayed my actualization of that particular aspiration, and recent hardware glitches haven’t helped matters. And followers of my professional Twitter feed already know that last week I ordered a Dell Inspiron Mini 9 (along with thankfully obtaining an evaluation 32GByte SaberTooth AA SSD upgrade from the fine folks at Active Media Products) as an alternative means of moving this particular project forward.

You might also be aware of the longstanding rumors that Apple’s working on a tablet computer. Assuming that ‘where there’s smoke, there’s at least a small fire’, I’ve been pondering which CPU Apple might base such a product on. If the goal were to produce a full-featured tablet augmentation of a MacBook-series laptop, for example, it’d seem that Apple would be likely to use either one of Intel’s Atom CPUs (including, perhaps, the looming Pine Trail next-generation design) or a fuller-featured CULV processor. Conversely, if the point of the project were to essentially develop a larger-screen variant of the iPod touch, complete with an App Store-centric software distribution scheme, an ARM-based design might make more sense (either from Apple’s internal development team or a partner supplier).

As of yesterday, we may have our answer. Then again, maybe not. After a prior back-and-forth in-and-out cadence of developer builds, yesterday’s release of the OS 10.6.2 upgrade officially removed support for Atom CPUs. Apple’s restrictive move is curious to me first and foremost because the Hackintosh community is passionate but small; the difficulty of both doing the initial installation and resurrecting the subsequent system after Apple-served code updates makes such a project beyond the means of most folks. And on that note, I’m curious to see how quickly the enthusiasts are able to work around whatever barrier Apple’s erected.

So what’s going on here? Do the folks at One Infinite Loop just not want to devote ongoing software development resources to processors for which there are no system plans? Is Apple worried that average consumers’ abilities to convert netbooks into cheap, tiny MacBook clones will become easier over time, and is the company proactively purging its code base of support for Atom CPUs’ identifier strings (or, conversely, explicitly adding a software barrier for those identifier strings) in order to cut off such a trend at the knees? Or does Apple have tablet (or more simply, cheap-and-tiny MacBook) plans looming on the horizon, for which it doesn’t want generic Atom hardware running hacked versions of OS 10.6 to be able to compete?

To the above ‘generic’ comment, along with my earlier ‘then again, maybe not’ mention, realize that Apple’s OS 10.6 move pragmatically gives little to no insight into what processor the company might use in a tablet (or any other new form factor, for that matter) computer. For the iPhone and iPod touch, after all, Apple ported over a tailored version of OS X from x86 to ARM, just as it had previously migrated the code base from PowerPC to x86. Similarly, the x86-based Apple TV runs a custom OS X build. While it’d be a stretch, I think, to think that Apple might further expand its code’s reach to MIPS or some other third CPU architecture, both ARM and x86 remain viable candidates for Apple-branded and O/S-customized hardware going forward. Including, yes, Atom.

Do you think Apple’s mythical tablet computer will ever appear? And if so, what CPU will it use? Give a shout out in the comments with your thoughts.