Apple Computer today put an end to speculative reports that hinted on its and Intel’s potential partnership for upcoming Macintosh computers. Apple CEO Steve Jobs officially announced a partnership between the two companies at the company’s Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, California.

In his keynote speech earlier today, Jobs outlined the history of Macintosh computers in relation to the processors it has selected from various vendors. Despite their differences, Jobs and Paul Otellini, President and CEO, Intel Corp., said the companies have set aside their differences and are now hoping to start a benefiting alliance. In correlation to IBM and its PowerPC architecture, Jobs said, "It's been ten years since our transition to the PowerPC, and we think Intel's technology will help us create the best personal computers for the next ten years."

Apple currently has plans to support both the PowerPC architecture as well as Intel architecture with Macintosh applications. Apple said it would make the transition easier over a period of time.

Apple labels the transition to Intel microprocessors a two-year scenario. In mid-2006, the company’s iBook and PowerBook series will move to Intel chips while the rest of its product line will be phased by mid-2007.

The company said converting applications to run on x86 architecture could be tough, depending upon the application. In general, a certain application could take a few days to fully get converted while others may take months with immense preparation. In hopes of making this process easier, Apple has introduced Rosetta, which is essentially a binary translator to run applications on Intel chips.

Jobs admitted the initial problems of making such a switch, but he said Apple has been running on x86 platform for the last five years. He further added that every release of Mac OS X has been complied for PowerPC and x86 architecture.

Jobs also added that OS X would not run on nonproprietary hardware. Both companies said they are working together to make the transition as smooth as possible.