哪些软件和硬件对于iPod的开发至关重要？在电脑上？

I have an idea for a simple application to run on an iPod. I'm an experienced programmer but have no experience on iPod or any Mac or Apple operating system. What are the bare essentials in terms of hardware and software to begin developing using a PC as the development platform? Does the PC need to be running Linux? I have an idea for a simple application to run