Mac Pro Update to Bring Exclusive Six-Core Gulftown CPU Early Next Year

Submitted by lalit on October 15, 2009 - 12:07pm.

Hardmac is reporting that Apple is finalizing the future Mac Pro model and it will use recently demoed six-core Gulftown Xeon CPU. The new Gulftown CPU will being following features:

  • 6 cores and 12 threads for each CPU (dual CPU will have 12 cores and 24 threads)
  • 12MB of shared cache compared to 8MB today
  • 32nm process technology vs. 45nm
  • Power consumption of future six-core Xeon will be slightly lower than present quad core Xeon processor because of 32nm process technology

Other features on the upcoming Mac Pro will include 10Gbps Ethernet port, and support for 8GB and 16GB memory modules pushing the maximum memory support to 128GB on dual CPU Mac Pro models. Hardmac believes that new Mac Pro models could be unveiled in Q1 2010, giving Apple a short-term exclusive use of the new six-core Xeon CPU, until its officially launched in Q2 2010.