Before the year ends, Intel is expected to introduce two four-core processors that are compatible to its Core 2 and Xeon Line. With these, it is now theoretically possible to have an 8-core Mac Pro (it features two LGA-771 sockets). Single systems can experience a dramatic increase in processing power should this quad-core processors become a reality.

To test the validity of this assumption, the guys over at AnandTech ran a simple experiment. According to them: "We grabbed a pair of 2.4GHz Clovertown samples and tossed them in the system, and to our pleasure, they worked just fine. The most important part of the test is that all 8 cores were detected and functional." The final chip is foreseen to use a 1333MHz FSB.

No crashes with the processors were also encountered after a series of stability test was performed.