Health warning! Have you been feeling a little too... comfortable lately? Studies have shown that a state of general emotional contentment is a major contributing factor in the onset of nonspecific spleen failure, and since no one is more concerned about the health of your spleen than we are, here's a quickie that might make your skin crawl a bit and get that blood pumping: the G5 was almost an Intel chip.

AAAAIIIIIGGGGGHHHHHH! Yeah, see? We knew that'd getcha. Here's to your spleen; as for your heart, well, you know what they say about omelettes and eggs. By the way, you're welcome.

Anyway, what raised the whole Intel-G5 issue is an article at The Inquirer, pointed out by faithful viewer agentofchange, which purportedly contains the text of a swiped internal IBM memo trumpeting the company's recent success in snagging the Xbox 2 contract while Intel cried boo-hoo. Not in public, of course; in front of the cameras, Intel's response to Microsoft switching its game console platform from x86 to PowerPC has been little more than a shrug, as if to say, "oooh, we lost the contract to make the chips for a toy; we're sooooo scared." But, of course, it's not really as simple as that; we're far too lazy to do the research (and we really can't risk any more disciplinary action from the Non-Journalists Union), but we're guessing that the console gaming industry is showing at least as much growth as the personal and enterprise computing markets-- probably more. So IBM is right to crow, seeing as it now either makes or will make the chips powering each of the three heavy-hitter consoles in the business.

So what does this have to do with the G5, you ask? Well, it all comes down to a very interesting line in IBM's internal "WE FEEL GREAT" memo: "We've handed Intel another defeat. Earlier this year, we kept them out of the Apple G5 and now we've thrown them out of Xbox." Now, it could just be a matter of clumsy construction, but the phrase "we kept them out of the Apple G5" certainly implies to us that, had IBM not had the PowerPC 970 to offer, rather than leave the fate of its high-end systems in the hands of Motorola, Apple may have jumped tracks and the Power Mac G5 could have wound up being the first Mac with an "Intel Inside" label stuck on the front. Actually, knowing Apple, it would have been laser-engraved into the aluminum, but still, you get the point.

And if the prospect of an Intel-powered Mac isn't really giving you a case of the twitchies, consider this other consequence of an x86 Power Mac G5: Rob Enderle would have been right for once. If that's not enough to get your spleen going, well, you should check your pulse while you're at it, because you're probably dead. Enjoy zombiehood.