Apple in Parallel: Turning the PC world upside down?

Apple computer is making another bet on parallelism, and the implications may be more profound than anyone yet realizes. In describing the next version of the Mac OS X operating system, dubbed Snow Leopard, Mr. Jobs said Apple would focus principally on technology for the next generation of the industry’s increasingly parallel computer processors.

Apple, CEO Steve Jobs asserted, has made a parallel-programming breakthrough. Apples upcoming operating system, Snow Leopard, will tap the computing power inherent in the graphics processors that are now used in tandem with microprocessors in almost all personal and mobile computers.

“Basically it lets you use graphics processors to do computation,” he said. “It’s way beyond what Nvidia or anyone else has, and it’s really simple.”

Read full story at The New York Times.