8 Core Xeon E5 Processor in New Mac Pro

A recent rumor came up, suggesting that Apple will announce a new Mac Pro at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference. The machine is said to feature Intel Xeon E5 series processors with six or eight cores, as well as Thunderbolt and USB 3.0.

Refreshing the Mac Pro Lineup

Prior to this, a list of purported Apple part numbers has emerged, a couple of day before the 2012 WWDC kicks off. The list suggests that Apple will refresh majority of its Mac products, including the Mac Pro. In fact, The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple made a remark that the Cupertino-based company will release a new and that they are less likely to phase the product out.

The news came out after professional video editor Lou Borella created a Facebook petition group called We Want a New Mac Pro. The group’s goal is for the company to give an indication whether people should wait for a new desktop tower or come up with another plan.

Inside the New Mac Pro

In addition to the mentioned specs, the desktop tower will boast 1600 MHz memory with 8 channels—a far improvement from the 1333 MHz memory that it available on previous Mac Pro generation. The memory enhancement can be attributed to the USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt support.

Carrying a moniker of K5B, the machine will also have SATA III/SAS 6 GB-per-second drive connectivity, and native PCI-Express 3 support for video cards. The SATA III/SAS is deemed as a major boost for the solid-state drive’s speed. On the other hand, the PCI-Express 3 support with 40 lanes per socket will have enhanced RAID arrays and video cards.

There were also claims that the machine’s onboard memory controller has been moved to the CPU itself, which could improve its performance big time.

No Ivy Bridge Processor on Mac Pro this Time

What’s missing in the new Mac Pro is the Intel Ivy Bridge processor. It was reported that Apple will upgrade its MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac and Mac mini to the manufacturer’s latest chip this year. However, the desktop tower is unlikely to have the Ivy Bridge, probably because it can’t handle voltage the same way its 32 nm Sandy Bridge kin can.

Other than the Mac Pro, Apple is also expected to update its 15-inch MacBook Pro, 11 and 13-inch MacBook Air, and 21.5 and 27-inch iMac next week. Meanwhile, the rest of the MacBook Pro lineup, as well as the Mac mini, will get a refresh later this year.

Source: Amog

Tags: Xeon, Processor, Mac Pro, IMac, Desktop PC, Apple, Xeon E5, Intel