wade walker : flash developer

A new rumor is flying around the net that Apple will soon be incorporating an H.264 hardware chip in every Mac machine. This hardware chip is designed for the encoding and decoding of videos, especially high-def video at 1080p. Now you may be asking, “How is this going to be a benefit?” Current machines use software to encode videos and movies, using the processor and other components of your computer, whether it be a Mac or a Windows machine.

Since it is using the processor to primarily handle the encoding, its pretty much all your computer can do because video encoding is very demanding. If you were to try to run any other program while encoding a video, it would be very sluggish. If Apple does actually include a chip just for video encoding and decoding, it will take a great strain off your processor and for the most part you can use your computer like normal while encoding a high-def video.

So when does this kick-ass chip start coming with new Macs? The very earliest is looking like June. It could be the end of the year though before they actually start coming out.