It's Up To Apple

The next generation Intel workstation-class processor is coming next week. This from a report found on The Inquirer. This is the the new Sandy Bridge based Xeon processor that could be used in the next Mac Pro tower. That is if Apple plans on still making them.

This new Intel lineup, called the Xeon E5 series, includes a 4-core/8-thread model that would be in the base Mac Pro. The mid-line chip has 6-cores/12-threads. The high-end processor has 8-cores/16-threads. The six and eight core processors will likely be used in a dual-processor configuration, which would create the first 16-core Macintosh.

The Xeon E5 processors are said to be in the manufacturing channels already with a release date coming next week. Rumors are that some vendors already have workstations running the new E5s.

Now it seems that it's up to Apple. They are about to release the new iPad 3 next week, possibly along with a new Apple TV 3. Once Apple gets through this we should know pretty soon whether Apple is going to go Pro, or not.