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Peter Sardon, IBM's "father of the PPC 970" has reportedly given the green light to commence production of the chip, according to a story at MacBidouille.

The article states that IBM will commence production of the 970 starting April 15, and will be used in IBM Blades by the end of June.

Previously, all 970s have been prototypes used only for testing and demonstration purposes. The story indicates that the final version of the 970 has been signed off and will enter production very shortly.

Analysis: If correct, this tells us something about Apple's product schedule. With volume production allowing IBM to use the 970 in Blades by the end of June, that means that a July release for the 970-equipped Power Macs isn't out of the question. The oddity is that Jobs won't be giving a MWNY keynote. As we've previously reported, Apple has supposedly scheduled 970 motherboard production to commence in the next few weeks, so the pieces of the jigsaw are beginning to fit together.