Mac Pro gets 12 Cores in September?

[kiang]

I just read this (http://www.zdnet.be/news.cfm?id=90682&mxp=200) article on ZDNet Belgium.

It's in Dutch though, so here's a google translation:
Six-Core Intel chip comes in mid-september
With an eight-core successor already behind the scenes

So far had up to four processors cores. But Intel has set itself not satisfied. The chipgigant expected to announce on 14 or 15 September the first commercial x86-multi core with six cores.

The Intel Xeon 7400 'Dunnington' chip for servers will also be the last branch of the Penryn family of 45 nanometerprocessors.

The most glaring Dunnington version is the 2.67 GHz Xeon X7460. He has, in addition to two additional cores, a large 16 MB L3 cache. Other models are the 2.4 GHz Xeon E7450 and the 2.13 GHz Xeon L7455, both with 12 MB L3 cache. The X7460 and the L7455 are both expected to be 2,729 dollars (1,877 euros) costs, while the E7450 is priced softer: 2,301 dollars (1,582 euros).

Construction in one piece
Dunnington is the first multicore Intel processor with monolithic chip, either: all cores sit on a piece of silicon. This will also be the case in the Nehalem family that the current series Penryn few months followed. This will be the Core i7-desktopprocessors in the fourth quarter as the first.

In the second quarter of 2009, Intel another step further with the production of the Nehalem EX for larger multiprocessorservers. They will have eight cores.

So, if Intel releases this mid-September, and the Mac Pro is listed 'do not buy', does this mean it will get two 6-cores, making it a twelve-core desktop? I cant wait to see that :D

------

Update: I found a decent English article on cnet: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10032313-64.html

Update 2: more references, so I guess it's true: http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/09/04/intel.xeon.7400.leak/

[BlizzardBomb]

I'm not sure if the extra cores offset the reduced clock speed and slower FSB. There are still apps out there which won't use all of the Mac Pro's 8 cores let alone 12 cores.

[Umbongo]

They are a different type of Xeon processor. So nope. They are also slower and cost over $3,000 for the 2.66GHz version.

[CWallace]

Dunnington will not fit in the Mac Pro socket and I believe it is incompatible with the Mac Pro's systemboard chipset. It is designed for servers only.

So it will not be an option for the Mac Pro. You have to wait until Core i7.

[Firefly2002]

N0.

[Tallest Skil]

This is NOT happening. Then next Mac Pro update will be the Tuesday before MacWorld 2009 in January with Nehalem processors.

[kiang]

This is NOT happening. Then next Mac Pro update will be the Tuesday before MacWorld 2009 in January with Nehalem processors.

Than I have news for your quote: Nehalem in notebooks won't happen till summer next year at best, so change 'soon' to 'in a while' ;)

edit:
ps:not meant to be harsh or anything :)

[Tallest Skil]

Than I have news for your quote: Nehalem in notebooks won't happen till summer next year at best, so change 'soon' to 'in a while' ;)

I know that. I don't care. It's soon for me.

[Hrududu]

I don't think so.

[Trekkie]

Than I have news for your quote: Nehalem in notebooks won't happen till summer next year at best, so change 'soon' to 'in a while' ;)

edit:
ps:not meant to be harsh or anything :)

not that it's relevant either. This is about Mac Pros, not a MacBook Pro.

[UltraNEO*]

not that it's relevant either. This is about Mac Pros, not a MacBook Pro.

YEAH!!
Just look at the forum category↑↑

Jeezz, are some of you stone or just...

[O. Frabjous-Dey]

He was snarking at Tallest Skil's signature - not completely off topic.

[fatcat23]

bump....is it for sure that will be no 6 core cpu's for the mac pro? It this speculation or has anything been said by intel or any leaks/rumors...I plan on buying in early 2009 but would rather wait for this a couple months longer so to be more future proofed. :p

[nanofrog]

bump....is it for sure that will be no 6 core cpu's for the mac pro? It this speculation or has anything been said by intel or any leaks/rumors...I plan on buying in early 2009 but would rather wait for this a couple months longer so to be more future proofed. :p
The next CPU for the Mac Pro will be the Gainestown-EP/ Xeon 5500 series chips. 4 cores per chip.

Here's an article from Tom's Hardware. Intel Roadmap ,09 Part 1 (http://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-product-roadmap-2009,6384.html)

[Trip.Tucker]

Than I have news for your quote: Nehalem in notebooks won't happen till summer next year at best, so change 'soon' to 'in a while' ;)

edit:
ps:not meant to be harsh or anything :)


Then, not than!

[fatcat23]

The next CPU for the Mac Pro will be the Gainestown-EP/ Xeon 5500 series chips. 4 cores per chip.

Here's an article from Tom's Hardware. Intel Roadmap ,09 Part 1 (http://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-product-roadmap-2009,6384.html)

cool...thanks for the info. I sure hope the 8 cores will be enough :p and I'm sure that the 12 cores would just be overkill.;)

[nanofrog]

cool...thanks for the info. I sure hope the 8 cores will be enough :p and I'm sure that the 12 cores would just be overkill.;)
OK. Let's not get greedy now...:D :p

Besides, ATM, most apps can't take advantage of multiple cores anyway. :eek:
Snow Leopard is supposed to change this though. :cool:

[Lord Zedd]

4 cores is more than enough for most people, 12 is massive overkill.

[pawn3d]

who cares, it comes out when it comes out

[bearcatrp]

A 12 core mac pro would be awesome for us crunchers.

[thereubster]

As mentioned in other threads, the Mac pro cannot get the 6 core Dunnington Xeon (without getting a new motherboard) as it is S604 only and the Mac Pro uses S771. SO , cant wont ever happen. The next Mac Pro will have Gainestown CPUs and will be out late this year

[fatcat23]

who cares, it comes out when it comes out

Ya but it's nice to be able to future proof your system. And x264 encoding is heavily threaded in os x and can use all 8 cores. :) I'm sure new updates will allow it to also use more.

I've never heard of the s604, thanks for the info. Going to do some research know. :cool:

[Lord Zedd]

Ya but it's nice to be able to future proof your system.

There is no such thing. Every computer is obsolete before the box is opened.

Remember 8 years ago when the PowerMac 733mhz G4 (Digital Audio) with the nVidia GeForce2 MX was THE fastest gaming computer anyone could buy, at least for a few days? People thought that computer was "future proof" at the time, but try running Leopard or even Halo on it.

[Umbongo]

There is no such thing. Every computer is obsolete before the box is opened.

Remember 8 years ago when the PowerMac 733mhz G4 (Digital Audio) with the nVidia GeForce2 MX was THE fastest gaming computer anyone could buy, at least for a few days? People thought that computer was "future proof" at the time, but try running Leopard or even Halo on it.

Nehalem does support a notion of being future proof over the current systems for the very fact that it is a new architecture and the current ones are a dead end. Whether or not that will matter due to how Apple deal with hardware is debatable.

I know the obsolete comment is a bit of an exageration for effect (I assume anyway), but workstation hardware is designed to not be obsolete in the short term, it's one of the selling points. Infact on a non-apple system the Nehalem workstation boards are likely to be supporting new processors for 3 years at least.

[Tallest Skil]

The next Mac Pro will have Gainestown CPUs and will be out late this year

I don't think they'll do it this year.

Tuesday before MacWorld, again, anyone?

[Quash]

Not gonna happen.

The processors you are listing have a far lower clock speed then the current MP making em slower for 99% of the tasks then the current MP.

Also these are quad chip server models. Meaning you can use 4 of them in 1 computer. And thus are way to expensive.

The next Mac Pro will be based on Core i7 / Nehalem architecture.

So it will be a Gainestown which will feature 2 cpu's with 4 Cores which van handle 8 threads each.(by using Hyperthreading) I'm willing to bet good money that it will come in January as usual. A year later so 2010 you will get 2x 8core procs ( based on Westmere 32nm ) for that same money.

[t0mat0]

Would they do a mini bump to take into account the slightly faster ~3.4GHz CPU X5492 (It's the bottom of the Harpertowns on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeon) at the least to take the edge off waiting till January potentially? Long but useful wait for Nehalem. (Will Apple actually put Nehalem in anything other than the Mac Pro first? What if Bloomfield was ready prior to Gainstown - would they ship Bloomfield first? Make the iMac wait for the Mac Pro refresh presumably as the iMac is mid cycle, with Mac Pro more in need of a refresh )

IDF Taiwan (Taipei): October 20 – 21, 2008 will see an Atom launch/new info potentially on benchmarks, release dates for some of the Nehalem (Bloomfield and Gainstown hopefully, covering Mac Pro, iMac at least.

[Umbongo]

Would they do a mini bump to take into account the slightly faster ~3.4GHz CPU X5492 at the least to take the edge off waiting till January potentially?

Nope. No business reason to do so and it isn't in Apple's style.

What if Bloomfield was ready prior to Gainstown - would they ship Bloomfield first? Make the iMac wait for the Mac Pro refresh presumably as the iMac is mid cycle, with Mac Pro more in need of a refresh

Bloomfield will likely be shipping in systems and as components before Gainstown, but it won't be going in to the iMac.

[m1stake]

The Mac Pro is the only Apple computer that uses desktop parts. The iMac, the Mini, and obviously the laptops, use laptop parts. Core i7 laptop parts will not be on sale until Q3 or Q4 2009.

[iMacmatician]

Some clarifications:

Dunnington is a Xeon MP CPU. The Mac Pro uses Xeon DP chips.
The next CPU the Mac Pro could have is the 4-core Gainestown (Q4 2009).
Mobile Nehalem is due in Q4 2009 for quad-core and January 2010 for dual-core (not long ago it was Q3 2009).
Westmere (32 nm) is coming at about the end of 2009. Rumors vary on its core count (4 or 6).

I'd say Westmere could be coming in both 4-core and 6-core variants. I would also say that we could be seeing a Mac Pro update at about the start of each year:

2008: Penryn (8/8)
2009: Nehalem (8/16)
2010: Westmere (12/24)
2011: Sandy Bridge (12/24)
2012: Ivy Bridge?

Tuesday before MacWorld, again, anyone?I agree with this prediction.

Would they do a mini bump to take into account the slightly faster ~3.4GHz CPU X5492 (It's the bottom of the Harpertowns on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeon) at the least to take the edge off waiting till January potentially?I doubt it, unless DP Nehalem was delayed to mid-2009 or so for some reason. And if so, I see it as an addition, like the Clovertown Mac Pro in 2007.

[Umbongo]

Intel can do 8 core processors on Nehalem for the DP platform. They suggested as much in the past. However unless AMD can put pressure on them they won't, there is no reason to. It's why we will see 8 core in Beckton in 2009; that is a market where other companies do have more cores available.

[iMacmatician]

Intel can do 8 core processors on Nehalem for the DP platform. They suggested as much in the past. However unless AMD can put pressure on them they won't, there is no reason to. It's why we will see 8 core in Beckton in 2009; that is a market where other companies do have more cores available.And that'll be a good thing, since AMD's coming with 6-core Istanbul in H2 2009 and 12-core Magny-Cours in H1 2010. The desktop AMD roadmaps still show 4 cores through 2009 (although at ≥3 GHz). I guess it's about cores in the server area, clock speed in the desktop area, and low power in the mobile area. :D

[Umbongo]

Although we've established that these aren't going in the Mac Pro some of you may be interested in seeing some 24 core benchmarks anyway. Interesting if only as it is compared with the 2.8, 3.0 and 3.2GHz processors the Mac Pro uses.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/09/30/exclusive-benchmarketeering

[liquid stereo]

How are the CPUs/cores supposed to have access to memory? 12 contending for/via the same bandwidth.

Hopefully there will be a way to disable some of the cores via software.


A 12 core mac pro would be awesome for us crunchers.

[xgman]

windows side, but interesting #'s nonetheless:


http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/09/30/exclusive-benchmarketeering

[t0mat0]

How are the CPUs/cores supposed to have access to memory? 12 contending for/via the same bandwidth.

Hopefully there will be a way to disable some of the cores via software.

Maybe increase the bandwidth ;)

Nehalem seems to do just that. As for the Higher core Penryns, they'll just have to duke it out, but they aren't hitting the Memory bandwidth buffer hard to my knowledge- otherwise why make them?