Apple is on a Sandy Bridge mission. Ever since the Cupertino company introduced the new Intel power plants into their devices we've been predicting that rest of the Apple family will get the Sandy Bridge treatment too.
To this end 9 to 5 mac are reporting that the top-of-the-range desktop range the Mac Pro is next inline for a refresh from Jobs and co.
But instead of just plonking a new processor in Apple are planning to offer a 16-core full-fat version of the desktop - which will be the fastest Mac ever created.
Quite what you would do with 16-cores we don't know - but would be a dream for film editors who render high def film and need the extra oomph. There will also be a semi-skimmed version running a poultry 8-cores as well.
9to5Mac's sources seem to think this will happen in late July or early August, and that an Apple executive has said that "Apple is investing heavily into Mac Pro."
The machine hasn't changed a whole lot since the PowerMac was axed and the Mac Pro brought in as its replacement, and is generally among the least frequently updated of Apple's product lines.
It may be time for a shake-up of the product beyond how high the numbers on its spec sheet can go.
The news seems to confirm previous reports that Apple also is going to give the Sandy Bridge treatment to it's Mac Mini range as well - with Sandy Bridge processors and Thunder bolt port expected to be introduced in time for OSX Lion.