By Tom Krazit
Wednesday, July 30 2008 11:09 AM
URL: http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/hardware/0,39042972,62044289,00.htm

Apple could be using a chipset from a different company--or even an internally developed one--in the next iteration of the MacBook, expected to arrive in the next six or eight weeks, according to reports from AppleInsider.

Like other notebook vendors, Apple had been using Intel's mobile Centrino chipsets in its MacBook line ever since 2006, but it is going to pass on the Montevina version of those chipsets this time around, according to the report.

Intel has successfully reinvented the company around mobile processors, starting with the original Pentium M design back in 2004 and carrying forward to today's Core 2 Duo. Yet it has been less successful with the integrated graphics chipsets that connect those processors to the rest of the system, such as the memory chips and hard drives.

If it is an internally designed chipset that Apple has in place for the new systems, history would be repeating itself at the company, which used to design much of the internal hardware that went along with IBM's PowerPC chips back in the day. Apple recently acquired a large number of chip designers from PA Semi, but Steve Jobs has said they are working on future chips for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

AppleInsider suggests Apple may have contracted with AMD or Via for the new chipsets, but offers no details on what might be inside the new systems.

This article was first published as a blog on CNET News.com.