UK Apple Store Leaks 8-Core Mac Pro

At the risk of doing that Apple rumor thing, it looks like the Apple Store UK let slip that Apple's got a few new goodies behind the veil for folks looking to purchase a Mac Pro in the near future. On its site, someone published a blurb that you could select and configure a Mac Pro desktop of your choice with either quad or 8-cores, meaning that the already powerful quad-core Intel Core 2 Duo Macs might be getting an additional upgrade in the near future. The rumors had been floating around for a while, and though a leaked screenshot is by no means definitive proof, it would make sense for Apple to take the step to offer its professional customers added computing power: It's the trend Apple has been taking with its desktops these days, and if the 8-core processor array makes its way into the Mac Pro, Apple's enterprise IT products like the XServe can't be too far behind.
At the same time, however, this begs a few important questions: First of all, can the Mac OS, or any application running on it, really make good use of the extra processing power? I know that Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) is coming, and it'll be x64 out of the box, but that doesn't imply that it can adequately spread out application or OS tasks across processors. Additionally, the Mac Pro has been getting more and more powerful--to the point where some enterprise servers rival it in hardware. So how much more expensive will the 8-core model be, and how much power will it draw? How much heat will it put out? All of these questions will go unanswered until Apple makes an official announcement, but in the meantime, Apple fans have quite a bit to drool about, and a little budgetary planning to do. All eyes will be on the upcoming National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) keynote speech, where Steve Jobs will have the floor, and no doubt use it to make some new product announcements.

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