Now that the MacBook and MacBook Pro updates are out of the way, the next revision to come from Apple will most likely be the Mac Pro.  With each passing day, the 2007 holiday buying period is inching closer.  More importantly however is the expected November 12 release of Intel's new Penryn processors.

Penryn due November 12
Intel Corp started mass producing Penryn processors over a week ago at their new factory in Arizona.  Based on industry reports and information from Intel, the initial wave of the much-hyped server and high-end desktop Penryn processors will be released November 12

The new Penryn chips have circuits are just 45 nanometers wide, compared to the 65 nanometer Clovertown chips used in the current Mac Pro models.  Therefore, the new Mac Pro models will represent an overhaul to the line, the first "major" change since the initial Mac Pro release at WWDC 2006.  The new Mac Pro systems will be one of the first lines from any vendor on the market to use Penryn processors.

Since its initial release on August 7, 2006, the Mac Pro has only undergone a revision on April 4, 2007 to include an 8-core option (see table below).  If released on November 12 the days between averages would equate to 222 days (18 days below average) or more importantly, just 4 days below the 7 month - 12 day historical average:


By simply relying on the historical average it would imply that the Mac Pro is due for an update soon.  When taken in conjunction with the November 12 date of Penryn processors, its is more likely that Apple will release new Mac Pros within the next two weeks.

We'd like to highlight that November 12 falls on a Monday.  Apple usually announces new Mac models on Tuesdays and more recently on Wednesdays.  The just announced MacBook revision and MacBook Pro 2.6GHz option occured on Thursday November 1, 2007.