In June, 2013, Apple officially unveiled a brand new Mac Pro: a sleek, cylindrical device that had a bunch of ports, and plenty of horsepower under the hood. It didn’t start shipping until the end of the year, but it looks like an update could be right around the corner.

While the redesigned Mac Pro didn’t start shipping until just before Christmas of last year, stock quickly ran low, and shipments were delayed all the way up until February. It took quite some time before Apple could get shipment to the “within 24 hours” that many Apple customers look for when ordering online. It took just as long before Apple retail locations could stock the device. Now, more than a year has passed since the new Mac Pro was unveiled, and there are reports that an update could be coming soon.

Based on a report from Macworld UK, Intel has begun readying their “Grantley” Xeon E5 v3 chipsets, which are a replacement to the “Romley” Xeon E5 v2 processor used in the current generation Mac Pro. This adds up with Intel announcing in July that they had begun shipping some versions of the Xeon E5 v3 chipsets to server makers. ChipLoco has identified a series of E5-2600 v3 chipsets that could be used for an upgrade to the top-of-the-line Mac Pro, which currently has a E5-2697 v2 12-core processor under the hood, clocked at 2.7GHz.

According to the report, the direct successor to the current processor used in the Mac Pro is the Xeon E5-2697 v3 chip, which is a 14-core processor clocked at 2.6GHz. However, it’s noted that the thermal rating would change with the inclusion of this chip, so if there is any question whether or not Apple would use it within the Mac Pro, it would stem from that detail.

Intel is also reportedly gearing up to launch a whole slate of v3 chips soon, including:

These new processors are set to ship in September, which means that while the update to the Mac Pro lineup could be soon, it probably won’t be in that particular month. Especially considering the impending announcement, and launch, of the new iPhone 6. However, it looks like many of the specific, and necessary pieces to launch an upgrade to the cylinder computing device are coming together.

Did you pick up a Mac Pro? If not, would you consider one with these new chips in place?