The Inquirer reports citing sources in Tokyo that Apple has “pre-booked” all the top end Penryn processors for this year, leaving only “minimum quantities” for other manufacturers. The processors are widely expected to be used in Apple’s next-generation of Mac Pro workstations.

Penryn processors code-named ‘Harpertown’ are the successor to the processor currently used in the Mac Pro, the chips are based on Intel’s 45nm manufacturing die and feature a massive 1600MHz front side bus.

The rumour is reminiscent of one earlier this year in which Intel stated that it was supplying Apple will exclusive allotments of ‘Clovertown’ the Penryn predecessor. The 3GHz Quad-Core processors were featured in the Mac Pro several months ahead of other manufacturers.

Penryn is slated for release on November 11th of this year, but Apple will most likely have access prior to this release.