By Kasper Jade

Published: 12:00 PM EST

Apple Computer has moved quickly to fill a void atop its Macintosh Hardware Engineering team, AppleInsider has learned. The company has replaced former vice president of Mac hardware engineering Tim Bucher, who left the company in mid-November, with a onetime executive from Umax Corp.

According to reputable sources, Bucher's replacement is none other than Peter Mehring, former founder of Umax Corporation--once a direct competitor to Apple when it produced Mac clone computers in the mid '90s.

Mehring was most recently an executive at Echelon Corp, a company focused on networking technology that enables end-users to remotely connect, monitor, control, sense, and diagnose devices. He served as the company's Senior Vice President of Engineering before he joined Apple in mid-November. In a statement provided to AppleInsider, a representative from Echelon acknowledged Mehring's departure for Apple, but did not provide further details.

"Peter was in charge of both hardware and software engineering and of course did a great job here at Echelon," the company said. "We're sorry to see him go, but Apple's a great company and the job he's taking is a great challenge."

During his tenure at Umax, where he served as General Manager and Vice President of Research and Development, Mehring was involved in the development of Macintosh-based clones -- Mac OS compatible computers manufactured by companies other than Apple.

Along with competitor Power Computing, Umax acted as a driving force in Macintosh hardware development and provided innovative Mac configurations during the Mac clone years. However, these years were short-lived and ultimately met their demise when Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1996. In effort to help restore Apple to profitability, Jobs refused to renew the Mac OS licenses of the clone manufacturers, forcing them out of business.

It remains unclear how long Apple has been courting Mehring--whether he was in Apple's sights prior to Bucher's departure, or if he was simply recruited to fill the void in Apple's executive team during the aftermath. Inquiries as to when Apple began recruiting the former Umax executive have since gone unanswered.

As Vice President of Mac Hardware Engineering, Mehring will be responsible for overseeing the future development of such hardware products as the Power Mac, PowerBook, iBook, and all-in-one iMac.