In April 2005, Apple was at a crossroads. IBM wasn't delivering on its 3GHz chip promises and wasn't making efficient, low power, high speed versions of its processors. It just wasn't a priority. Apple had to do something. At the time, that something turned out to be moving to Intel x86 processor lineup which blew away anything IBM had to offer (Apple was still using Motorola/Freescale G4s in its laptops) in terms of power/watt.
The Register broke the story a year later that there was a third player involved in that switchover.
P.A. Semi
P.A. Semi had a chip that would have kept Apple on the PowerPC processor roadmap for the next few years. It had a low power 2GHz
