Q: Why not use the hexacore i7-970 for the UP
As mentioned, it's not officially been released yet. But another aspect, is it doesn't have ECC memory capability either (remember, so far, Apple's sticking with ECC, as the current Xeon's and W36xx/56xx parts have the ability to use non-ECC as well as ECC DDR3). You just can't mix the two memory types.
nanofrog had a source but couldn't find it.
Wiki previously had information on the W3620, W3640, and W3690 (3.43GHz) including their release dates (Quarter and year, not a precise date). A couple of others existed as well, but they've also disappeared. I don't know why for sure, but expect they were pressured by Intel to remove it.
Why would Apple use quad cores instead of hexas? That would be no upgrade from current gen, only a minor price cut (or more profit for Apple

).
In terms of the DP systems,
cost, as the DP Hex core's aren't cheap (i.e. X5650 is $996 per CPU in quantity). Those details are in another post (different thread). The X5645 is a bit cheaper, but not much.
This is why I'm thinking the Octad will still be available in the DP system (at least one, but perhaps 2), in order to meet the lowest price point, and possibly the mid-level. Sticking with Dodeca's put the base DP system at something like $5049 USD, and the top end model at $6049 USD (previous post, different thread), with another yet in the middle. That's a high starting price, and way too big a gap IMO (price difference between the top end SP and the base DP systems). So they'd almost certainly want more of a price distribution. Octad system/s fit the bill, given the CPU pricing structure.
For the SP systems, it would depend on the planned release date for the systems (i.e are the other Hex core SP parts ready or not when production begins). It's getting late enough, this could be what we see. But I still think the biggest holdup has been available developer time (think iOS for the devices).