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Update: Many of our readers have helpfully put us straight; this is in fact part of the Xcode developer tools, which you can install from the discs that came with your Mac.

Have you updated your Intel Core Duo or Core 2 Duo Mac to Mac OS X 10.4.9? If so, take a look in System Preferences and you might notice a new pane; we just have.

Called Processor, it shows details of the CPU driving your Mac. You can choose to disable one core of dual core Macs - though why you'd want to isn't clear - and enable a menu bar control that mimics this functionality.

From this menu bar control, you can also choose to show a processor palette detailing the load on each core. It appears to be similar to the feature found in Activity Monitor, but it's much prettier.

We've only seen this on a Core Duo and a Core 2 Duo MacBook; it seems to be limited to Intel systems, but we'd be interested to hear whether or not the pane has appeared on your system. Post your experiences in the comments below.