Most Popular Articles
- MobileMe Mail and Gmail Go Down Simultaneously (11 Aug 2008)
- Comparing Apple's MobileMe Contrition with Google and Netflix (19 Aug 2008)
- iPhone Apps That Go Beyond Entertainment (08 Aug 2008)
- Jobs Personally Acknowledges iPhone Bug and Upcoming Fix (19 Aug 2008)
Recent TidBITS Talk Discussions
- Google Chrome (13 messages)
- Firefox 3 Bounds Forward (12 messages)
- Problems with Eudora on OSX 10.5 (Leopard)? (49 messages)
- Cox.net Will Not Send from iPhone (55 messages)
Published in TidBITS 874. Subscribe today to receive TidBITS in email every Monday.
- Find Strongest Wi-Fi Networks Easily
- More on Apple/EMI and DRM-Free Music
- Google Desktop Comes to the Mac
- VMware Fusion Beta 3 Draws New Parallels
- Step on a WEP Crack, Break Your Network's Back
- Use iPods Cautiously While Driving
- 3G iPod Owners Beware Compatibility Claims
- Online Backup Options Expand
- Take Control News/09-Apr-07
- Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/09-Apr-07
| Apple Introduces Eight-Core Mac Pros
by Jeff Carlson 
For those who have been waiting for new Mac desktops to land, Apple has one message: eight is great. Last week the company added an 8-core Intel Xeon processor configuration to the Mac Pro. The 8-core Mac Pro relies on two "Clovertown" 3.0 GHz quad-core Xeon 5300 series processors, available as a custom option when assembling a system at the online Apple Store for $1,500 more than the default configuration of a pair of dual-core Xeons. Each processor features 8 MB of L2 cache (16 MB total), 128-bit SSE3 vector engine, and 64-bit data paths and registers. Otherwise, the specifications for the Mac Pro remain essentially the same as the quad-core configurations that are still available, including up to 3 TB of internal storage (increased from 2 TB thanks to Apple selling 750 GB drives), up to 16 GB of RAM, and a 16x SuperDrive with double-layer support.
If you're wondering what difference eight cores makes to performance, you're not alone. Apple has not updated its benchmark listings for the new configuration, and the company didn't even issue a press release for the new Mac Pro. Macworld quotes an Apple spokesperson as saying that the new option for the Mac Pro gives software developers a platform from which they can prepare their applications for a future when eight-core technology is more prevalent. Our question: Is this really a custom Mac for Adobe's development team to ensure that the CPU-hungry Photoshop and friends will be able to chow down on eight cores in a forthcoming major update to the Mac Pro?
READERS LIKE YOU! Support TidBITS with a contribution today!<http://www.tidbits.com/about/support/contributors.html>
Special thanks this week to David W. Everett, Frederick Mills,
Glenn Mehrbach, and Charles Reeves Jr. for their generous support!