More Mac power?

Wired News (ooh - nice new look) reports on possible good news for Apple and its users: IBM is expected to unveil a new line of 64-bit processors that could help bridge the growing gap between Mac and Wintel processor speeds. Don't dust off your chequebook, Macolytes - it's not going to happen before the end of next year - but the PowerPC 970 line should bring clock speeds of 1.8GHz, with lots more instructions issued per cycle. People Wired have talked to suggest the development should bring the two platforms pretty close in terms of performance, although debating that is always a good way to start a fight.