Apple [AAPL] has announced the new Apple Mac Pro today along with several other new Apple products. The new Mac Pro is a powerful computer that can contain from 4, 6, 8 or 12 cores. The processors used to achieve this are the Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehamel” or the new “Westmere” series. The Mac Pro accepts up to two processors which means if you choose a 6-core Westmere you can have up to 12-cores running inside with a speed up to 2.93GHz. Other options with less cores take speeds up to 3.33GHz on the top end.
Many multicore processors are composed of two separate dies, which means some cached data has to travel outside the processor to get from core to core. That’s an inefficient way to access information. Enter the Quad-Core and 6-Core Intel Xeon processors. Their single-die, 64-bit architecture makes 8MB or 12MB of fully shared L3 cache readily available to each of the processor cores. The result is fast access to cache data and greater application performance. Combine that with the other technological advances and you get a Mac Pro that’s up to 1.5x faster than the previous generation.