Eight-core Mac Pros arrive

Apple on Wednesday announced an update to its Mac Pro workstation PC that features two 3.0GHz quad-core Intel Xeon processors. This eight-core upgrade option doubles the number of processing threads available on Apple's flagship desktop. Pricing for the eight-core model begins at $3,997, although you can still get a quad-core Mac Pro for less.

And as usual with Apple, it's taking orders immediately, with its Web site listing a shipping window of three to five days.

The new systems had been rumored for a while, particularly after an advertisement popped up on Apple's U.K. site last month.