When Apple announced that they would be moving the Macintosh over to the Intel processor architecture, the first queston many people cried in dismay was, "why not move to the Cell?!" Why not, indeed.

Apple felt the need to move away from the PowerPC for a variety of reasons. Production yield was often low, preventing Apple from getting the CPUs needed to move machines out the door to meet demand. The roadmap was worrisome; the heat of the G5 left Apple without a solution for a near-term power boost on the portable front. Many felt that IBM's new, uniquely architectured Cell processor, which Sony is placing at the heart of the upcoming Playstation 3, would be the answer to Apple's dilemma. It was not to be.

When asked about about it, Steve Jobs indicated that Sony had tried to sell Apple on the Cell processor, but that he was disappointed with its design. Jobs indicated that he "believes Cell will be even less effective than the PowerPC." It turns out he had a pretty good take on the situation.

AnandTech has recently published a story entitled "Microsoft's Xbox 360 & Sony's PlayStation 3 - Examples of Poor CPU Performance." (The story was pulled shortly after its publication, apparently due to Anand's concern that it would lead to Microsoft tracing his anonymous insider, and as such the story link is to a Google Groups cache.) The article examines the PS3's Cell processor and the Xbox 360's Xenon processor—both PowerPC derivatives, and notes just how poorly these two units perform in real world tests.

Clearly in real world usage, the Cell has nothing on the current G5. A move to the Cell would have been a step in the wrong direction. As it stands now with the move to Intel, the processor that will be sitting at the core of future Macs has a bright future, indeed.

Slashdot's coverage of this story has an interesting user comments thread.