Appleinsider reports that Apple is indeed planning on introducing a 8-Core Mac Pro using the Quad-Core Xeon (Clovertown) processors from Intel.
The Mac Pro new system would come with two Quad-core processors and could be released after mid-November of this year. The exact timing of the release is not clear, but must wait for the official release of Clovertown.
As it stands, the release of the eight-core Mac Pro hinges on both Intel and Apple. But following Intel's mid-Nov. quad-core Xeon launch, the ball should be completely on Apple's side of the court. It'll be strictly a marketing decision from there, say insiders, as the Mac maker wrapped up hardware preparations for this brawny beast during the tail-end of the back-to-school season.
Details of the Clovertown processors were revealed in September, showing two versions of the chip that support the same 1333MHz bus as the Mac Pro. These processors (X5355 and E5345) run at 2.66 and 2.33GHz respectively.
Indeed, the current Mac Pros appear to be directly compatible with the new processors. In September, AnandTech replaced two Dual-Core Xeon (Woodcrest) processors from a Mac Pro with samples of two Quad-Core Xeon (Clovertown) processors and "they worked just fine".
Apple once developed "M2 Extreme" and "M3 Extreme" chips for the Mac Pro, but it decided not to release them, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. He first reported on this topic in 2022, and he touched on it again in his Power On newsletter today.
"Extreme" chips would have had twice as many CPU and GPU cores as Apple's "Ultra" chips.
"The idea was to offer twice as many graphics and...
Apple developed two Mac Pro models in recent years that never made it to market, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
In his latest "Power On" newsletter, Gurman revealed that Apple internally developed two unreleased Mac Pro projects codenamed J170 and J190 before ultimately discontinuing the machine altogether.
As for new Mac Pro hardware, there were two additional models developed by...
Apple announced the original Mac Pro 20 years ago today, with the anniversary landing five months after the company discontinued the machine for good.
On August 7, 2006, Apple unveiled the first Mac Pro, powered by two dual-core 64-bit Xeon processors that Apple said made it up to twice as fast as the Power Mac G5 it replaced. It was the last Mac to complete Apple's transition from PowerPC...
Apple's first foldable iPhone, with a book-style design featuring a ~5.5-inch outer display and a ~7.8-inch inner display with a minimal crease down the middle.