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Apple planning more power to attract gamers?

Mac Pro with 2 quad-core chips may be in the works

Candace Lombardi
In a software-driven world, it's easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET.
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Candace Lombardi

You thought that an Apple strategy to attract gamers was nonexistent. A certain ad appearing on Apple's U.K. site last night seems to indicate otherwise.

The site had an ad for a Mac Pro that stated: "Now quad-core or 8-core processing power. Configure yours today."

ZDNet

Don't bother checking out the U.K. Apple site. The ad is no longer there, but here is a screen shot thanks to our friends over at ZDNet. They managed a screen capture before it was taken down.

When asked whether a dual quad-core processor for a Mac Pro was in the works, Apple would neither deny nor confirm the possibility.

"We have not announced anything," said Apple spokeswoman Lynn Fox.

A dual quad-core configuration is probable because two of Intel's Xeon 5300 "Clovertown" chips, which have four processing cores each, could fit into the same slots as the dual-core Intel chips currently used.

And you know what that means? More power.

More processing power could be part of Apple's strategy to win over gamers and game developers, who have been slow to perceive Apple computers as viable gaming machines.