A Bloomberg report in January said Apple is working on an Intel processor-based successor to its current Mac Pro. Now, a reference to a 10-core Intel i9-powered Mac has been discovered in the latest macOS Big Sur 11.4 RC update, released yesterday.
MacRumors reported today that its contributor Steve Moser found the reference in the RC code. The first appearance of a 10-core Intel Chip in an iMac was seen in a Geekbench score from last July. However, last month saw the unveiling of an Apple Silicon-powered iMac. This indicates the iMac lineup will focus on Apple Silicon.
While Apple is expected to migrate all of their Mac lineups over to Apple Silicon, the Mac Pro could be one of the final models to get the homegrown Apple processor. Any big update of the Mac Pro, which is aimed at higher-end professional users, could be delayed until the end of Apple’s transition.
The high-end Macs could greatly benefit from later versions of Apple Silicon. Bloomberg has reported that Apple is testing chips that boast as many as 32 high-performance cores. The M1 chip that powers the initial wave of Apple Silicon Macs has only four high-performance cores.