Apple Buying Up High End Penryn Processors?
The Inquirer reports on rumors circulating around Tokyo about Apple's interest in high end Penryn processors for their upcoming Mac Pros.
According to the rumors, Apple has "pre-booked" all the top (3.2GHz) Penryn bins for this year, leaving only "minimum quantities" for other big vendors. The 3.2GHz Penryn Xeon ("Harpertown") processors offer a faster 1600MHz bus and 12MB of L2 cache. The quad-core processors could provide Apple with an upgrade path for their current Mac Pro line which has not seen major upgrades since August of 2006. Apple did introduce the 8-core Mac Pro in April of 2007, but left the existing models untouched.
By incorporating these new processors, Apple could increase the top speed Mac Pro to 3.2GHz with a 1600MHz front side bus (up from 1333 MHz). This would not be the first time Apple would have "exclusive" use of an otherwise unreleased Intel processor. The introduction of the 8-core Mac Pro used a 3.0GHz Xeon chip that was otherwise unannounced at that time. Similarly, the Penryn Xeon processors were not expected to reach 3.2GHz based on early reports.
The new Intel Penryn Xeon processors are due in November 2007.
According to the rumors, Apple has "pre-booked" all the top (3.2GHz) Penryn bins for this year, leaving only "minimum quantities" for other big vendors. The 3.2GHz Penryn Xeon ("Harpertown") processors offer a faster 1600MHz bus and 12MB of L2 cache. The quad-core processors could provide Apple with an upgrade path for their current Mac Pro line which has not seen major upgrades since August of 2006. Apple did introduce the 8-core Mac Pro in April of 2007, but left the existing models untouched.
By incorporating these new processors, Apple could increase the top speed Mac Pro to 3.2GHz with a 1600MHz front side bus (up from 1333 MHz). This would not be the first time Apple would have "exclusive" use of an otherwise unreleased Intel processor. The introduction of the 8-core Mac Pro used a 3.0GHz Xeon chip that was otherwise unannounced at that time. Similarly, the Penryn Xeon processors were not expected to reach 3.2GHz based on early reports.
The new Intel Penryn Xeon processors are due in November 2007.
Top Rated Comments
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57 months ago
Great. Now include a top-of-the-line video card as BTO.
I would like to seconded that!
57 months ago
Since the new Apple Mac Pro paradigm is a single primary base CPU, why not go for the best out of the gate, due to bulk ordering and pre-ordering, resulting in flatter price vs. time. Gives Apple a one year price time frame vs. a 6 month one.
The real benefit is the average cost is their true cost, so everybody else will have to pay premium cost for 6 months or so before everybody else's cost drops to Apples cost later.
They also buy bragging rights.
Rocketman
The real benefit is the average cost is their true cost, so everybody else will have to pay premium cost for 6 months or so before everybody else's cost drops to Apples cost later.
They also buy bragging rights.
Rocketman
57 months ago
Which chipset does the MacPro use? I am having the darnedest time finding a worstation chipset or server chipset that does 1.6Ghz FSB.
57 months ago
I wonder if Apple didn't bother updating the mac pro in the last year (stuff like the GPU could have been updated, even if there weren't any better processors available) because they anticipated high demand with the launch of major Universal Binary apps like CS3? Perhaps as sales level off, they'll feel more of a need to keep stimulating sales by keeping it a bit more up to date in future? Lets hope.
57 months ago
Great. Now include a top-of-the-line video card as BTO.
My first reaction as well. My preference is for the nvidia 8800 series.
-Ado
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