In the pantheon of regular Apple rumors, the two that seem to come up most regularly are that Apple is being bought by some large corporate concern (Sun and Disney were my favorites, and they both came up more than once) and that Apple will move its hardware to Intel chips.

The Intel Inside rumor has been revived this morning.

The Wall Street Journal, citing two industry executives with knowledge of recent discussions between the companies, reported that Apple will agree to use Intel chips.

Neither company would confirm the report, and an Apple representative told the Journal that the information should be characterized as “rumor and speculation.”

If there is any truth to the rumor, it is still speculation as to whether this would be a broad move away from the IBM (I’m unsure whether Motorola still provides any of Apple’s needs) chips or if it would just be another single solution like the Intel chip that lives in the XServe Raid. Either way, it’s always fun to spread industry gossip.

The reason it might well be true: IBM’s next-generation PowerPC chips are so significantly different from earlier generations that it will be a big effort to to move Apple’s computing line to support the new technology. If that level of effort needs to be expended, why not port to a less expensive, more stable chip manufacturer? I had always hoped that the choice would be AMD, but it might much just as much sense to go with Intel.

The reason it might be a lie: one of the reasons people often give that Apple might want to ditch the IBM alliance is for future availability. I’m sorry, but IBM is in the chip making business and will be for a long time to come. Just realizing that all of the console makers will be moving to IBM technology should put to lie any fear of an IBM exit from the field. And IBM chips and architecture are impressive; it would be hard to imagine buying a new Macintosh that wasn’t based on a PowerPC chip.

This is in the “I’ll believe it when I see it” file; an unsubstantiated rumor until one of the two companies involved puts out a press release telling us exactly what their partnership might entail. Until that happens, enjoy the regularly scheduled Apple rumor.

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