You do realize that no matter what you do the architecture of computers will change dramatically over the next few years.
Yes, I should hope so. I still need something that acts as a bridge to the hardware investments I have made (on an enterprise level) and is capable of working with software on a 3 year horizon.
I realize this is an issue but you have to remember where the industry is going here. Heterogeneous computing i coming to a platform near you soon. For discrete GPU's this could lead to dramatically different architectures.
It seems that Apple has embraced the AMD variety in this new Form Factor, but that isn't necessarily going to work with everyones tool sets. Do these even have CUDA technology?
I suspect it will have a slot but it isn't likely to be a high power slot. many industries will not leave PCI-Expres anytime soon. As such it is important legacy support.
No slot... so the question begs... is TB2 going to have issue supporting the higher end 3rd party graphics cards, considering the conversion that has to happen at the processor?
Also why would Apple integrate PCIe-3 into the new machine, but only for flash storage? Industry is pressing in the direction of Fusion-IO boards for speed and caching... isn't at best TB2 going to dumb that down?
I can't imagine that they would cripple TB on a machine highly reliant upon it like that. Of course Apple does a lot of things I can't imagine but I would expect several PCI-Express lanes dedicated to TB I/O. In fact lanes dedicated to TB would likely be the cause of fewer lanes available to PCI-Express inside the machine.
4 lanes. not bad. but TB2 is just a bi-directional upgrade to TB1.
I'd prefer half rack myself. This allows for two in the place of one or side by side mounting with instrumentation.
No rack mount. Cooling design in the new FF is interesting. Personally I don't care what i looks like or how heavy it is, it's the IO options that matter to me.
Yeah yeah yeah. No matter what you do the PC market will change dramatically over the next few years. If nothing else the smaller and faster parts will require shrinking of the machine in order to maintain those speeds. Apple really needs to build a platform that looks towards the future. This rev of the Pro might not get us there but it will start us down the path.
Dont' discount brand loyalty in this industry. You are right, change is important, I'm not sure this puts us on the right path.