Face it, until MacIntel machines actually ship, everyone is just reading tea leaves. The Tea Leaf Reader of Record has a couple of useful clues here, though:
-- Confirmation from IBM that it wanted Apple to pay more for developing its chips. This supports the view that a key incentive for Apple to make the move was a better financial deal from Intel.
-- Analyst expectations that Apple will move to 64-bit Intel chips. Current processors handle 32 bits at once, 64-bit chips, as you would guess, chomp 64, thereby increasing computer performance. The technology is supposed to be the Next Big Thing in personal computers, but Intel's efforts have not be especially successful to date. Driving sales of 64-bit chips looks like Intel's motivation for courting Apple.
What's Really Behind the Apple-Intel Alliance - New York Times
