Apple last reached several major milestones in its computer career, releasing a barrage of Intel x86 machines that used the latest hardware. Apple revamped its entire range of computer systems while sticking to a rather strict time-to-market schedule. Some of the releases were quiet while others were well heard. Today’s update from Apple is one of those quiet but important releases: dual 4-core Clovertown Mac Pros are now officially available.
Using Intel’s Clovertown Xeon processor, which Intel announced last November, the Mac Pro receives quite a significant boost in overall system performance. Intel targets Clovertown towards dual-socket systems, and the Mac Pro is one of them. Customers are able to order a Clovertown-based Mac Pro with dual processors for a total of eight effective processor cores.
The Clovertown core is effectively two dual-core dies in one package, each pair having 4MB of L2 cache for a total of 8MB. Each pair of cores also share a single 1066/1333MHz front-side bus. Customers that order the new Mac Pro will receive Clovertown processors clocked at 3.0GHz while those who wish to order the older Woodcrest based Mac Pro can choose between 2.0GHz, 2.66GHz and 3.0GHz configurations. Keep in mind that a Clovertown processor is simply two Woodcrest processors joined into one single package.
Configurations for the Mac Pro start at $2,499.00 with two 2.66GHz dual-core Woodcrest Xeons. Customers who wish to upgrade to the 8-core configuration will have to add an additional $1,498.00.