Apple and IBM's PowerPC Potential

eWeek is reporting that IBM denies that Apple's PowerPC power-consumption concerns were valid:

[IBM] could build PowerPC chips that satisfy the needs of the entire range of Apple's product lines, including portables such as the PowerBook, said Rod Adkins, vice president of development for IBM's Systems and Technology Group, which produces IBM's PowerPC chips.

Actual delivery/availability to Apple, however, may have been limited due to IBM and Apple's current relationship and manufacturing capability. There is also some speculation amongst analysts that perhaps Jobs was given non-public information about Intel's roadmap which may have swayed his decision. Such thoughts remain purely speculative, however.

IBM will be providing future PowerPCs for upcoming PowerMacs, however, as Jobs had indicated.

"We still have a number of products we're [IBM] doing with them [Apple]," Adkins, who declined to elaborate on the exact ones

The PowerPC 970MP has been widely discussed as a potential processor to be used in upcoming PowerMacs.