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Journalists Cover Microsoft, Using Macs

It’s not an easy time for Microsoft — with Steve Ballmer having to field questions about being “buffoons” and an “evil empire”  at the shareholder’s meeting (.doc) — so when they get together “the world’s most influential technology pundits and online writers” (nb: we weren’t invited) for Mobius to discuss super-secret mobile tech you’d think [...]

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Review: Voices Is Today’s Best Thing Ever, Grab It Now While It’s Cheap

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Review: Sony Walkman S540 Series Video MP3 Player

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Apple Testing 6-Core Mac Pro Using Intel ‘Gulftown’ Chip

Credit: Steve Kay/Flickr

Credit: Steve Kay/Flickr

Apple is testing a new version of its Mac Pro equipped with a six-core processor from Intel. The new computer could be introduced in the first quarter of 2010 and may prompt a discount for earlier Mac Pro machines. The report by Hardmac is based on an unnamed source.

If correct, the new Mac Pro desktop will boost the current 8MB L3 cache to 12MB using the Gulftown Xeon chip. The update would permit 12 threads for each CPU. Apple will likely double the six-core to 12, reports said. The Gulftown is the codename of Intel’s unreleased chip expected to be named the Intel Core i9 or Xeon 5600 series for servers. The six-core processor will be Intel’s first and its as-yet unreleased status could give Apple a brief exclusivity.

Apple currently uses the Nahalem Xeon processor in its Mac Pro released earlier this year. The Mac Pro now offers 8 cores running two 2.26GHz quad-core Intel Xeon 5500 processors.

[Via HardMac and AppleInsider]

About the author

Ed Sutherland

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

Email the author | Read more posts by Ed Sutherland.

One comment

    I just bought a quad core, 2.93 when they came out 6 months or so ago. It just screams but cannot see much in the application world where all 4 of those cores are used (8 hyperthreaded cores actually) aside from Final cut and one or two others. Correct me if Im wrong but when I use any app in CS4, I see no more than two cores being used as well. 6 and 12 cores would make this thing a complete beast but is it really worth getting unless your someone like a movie producer? Sounds tempting though…

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