Rumors in several trade publications – and speculation in a Bear Stearns analyst’s report – say Apple Computer is on the verge of switching to the Intel processor chip used in PCs. A switch is something that would no doubt shake up both the PC and Macintosh worlds.

Up to now, the choice of processors has marked the fundamental difference in the two niches. Unlike Apple, PCs have used chips primarily from Intel, along with some work-alike chips from AMD.

Andrew Neff, the Bear Stearns analyst, in a 50-page report released this month said Apple, which uses chips from Motorola and IBM that top out at 1 gigahertz, will switch to Intel, whose chips run at 2.5 GHz, to get a performance boost and gain customers.