iMac to Come in Both Dual-Core and Quad-Core Configs?

Following up a report we had questions about from last week, Analyst Shaw Wu now claims that the upcoming iMacs will come in both dual core and quad core variants:

In his note to clients today, Wu now claims to be hearing from his sources "that both types of processors will likely be used," which would "makes sense as this helps Apple create better tiers within the iMac family, utilizing quad-core for the high-end, and dual-core for mid-range and low-end."

If true, this would be the first time that Apple would be adopting a quad-core processor into their consumer desktop machine. Wu's track record for accurate predictions are quite poor, however.

Another reason to doubt the report are its expecations that "upcoming Intel 'Nehalem' 8-core processors (and with two enabling a 16-core)" will be used in the new Mac Pro. While Intel will be detailing an 8-core Xeon at next week's ISSCC conference, most published reports don't expect such a chip until at least until late 2009. Meanwhile, Xbitlabs even states that recent confidential Intel documents didn't even have any mentions of an 8-core Xeon due in 2009. The March 29th Nehalem Xeons we reported on earlier today are only expected to max out at 4-cores per chip.