Tech Shout!

Users will now have the chance to buy a Mac that is powered by eight processor cores. On Tuesday, Apple announced the release of a line of Mac Pro PCs that can be configured with two quad-core Intel Xeon processors.

In fact, on Apple’s web site, the company is advertising a Mac Pro, which will feature two quad-core 5300 series processors that can run up to 3.0GHz.

The two quad-core processors offer 8MB of L2 cache each- for a total of 16MB- as well as a 1333MHz FSB (front side bus). What’s more, Apple is also offering the Mac Pro with a total of 16GB of RAM and a total of four, SATA (Serial ATA) hard drives that can support up to 3TB of memory.

The retail price for a standard Mac Pro on Apple’s web site for two, 2.66GHz Xeon dual-core processors and 1GB of memory is $2,499, while the new quad-core configurations will add an additional $1,498 to that price.

Apple, however, has not specified which Xeon quad-core processors in Intel’s 5300 series, the new Mac Pro would deploy. While Intel does not list a specific quad-core Xeon that runs at 3.0GHz on its Web site, an Intel company spokesman confirmed that Apple is indeed intending to is a quad-core processor with the Mac Pro that is currently in limited production.

Apple is targeting developers, animators and other high-end workstation users. “The eight-core Mac offers greater performance for some processing-intensive tasks, such as 3D modeling, animation and scientific applications,” said company spokeswoman Teresa Brewer in an e-mail.