EFI-X Chip - PC to Mac

I’ve conventionally been a PC boy, although I have been exposed to various operating platforms. I’ve had my share of experiences with various OS’ and given the options I figured I’d stick with Windows assuming Microsoft would finally figure a way to deliver a slicker version of Windows (which now comes true with Windows 7, but that’s another story for another day).

Getting to the point. Apple’s strategy to go Intel recently, opened up a whole new range of possibilities for computer enthusiasts and modders worldwide. We had the OSX86 project, a community of Mac fanatics, with a much more open set of Idealogies, who believe that Apple needed to open up its OS to more open x86 architectures, however, I don't believe Apple has any such plan in the near future.

So I ended up trying the Hackintosh. However, there was always something that had to be tweaked. The next revelation that took place was in the form of EFI-X.

EFI-X is a company based in Holland, and their purpose is to be the bridge between the PC/MAC world, two giants who haven’t seen eye to eye since each of their beginnings.

EFI-X has managed to create this bridge in the form of a USB based chip, meant to be a BPU (Boot Processing Unit). The chip fits into the USB header of your motherboard and somewhat bypasses the conventional boot process and diverts it to its own internal boot process. It’s well known that Macs use a boot ROM called the EFI kernel, as opposed to the conventional BIOS that you have on a PC. The chip bypasses BIOS, and emulates in real time, an EFI-X kernel, with all the necessary boot drivers, which as many hackintosh tweakers will know, is quite a boon.

Build
The chip is quite inconspicuous and small, yet well built and well finished. It ships with a cable that is meant to fix the chip onto the USB header on your motherboard (this is not possible on an external conventional USB port, it must be the header pins on your motherboard.

Apart from that, there’s nothing else that’s really required. Now, all you have to really do is push in your Leopard Installation DVD and you’re good to go (Yes. This requires a retail Leopard DVD. Hackintosh installs will not work with the chip, although previous installs do load seamlessly with the chip, and I might mention even perform slightly better).