We are getting closer to WWDC 2013 and the rumor mill is starting to hit full stride.
There is talk of iRadio, thinner MacBook Pros, the Johnny Ive iOS entry and maybe even a new OSX.
Most of these are par for the course around this time of year. Glaringly absent from the rumor mill is talk of a new Mac Pro.
I'm here to change that. Here is my first foray as a true Apple "rumor-monger".
If you've been following my posts you've seen me bash some of the major sites for their predictions and assumptions that never really seem more than guesses and questions. After having been on the phone with Apple myself I now realize the frustration some of these journalists encounter. That being said this post is not a guess or an assumption. I actually have a source or two that has some credibility.
Here is what I've been told about the new Mac Pro.
- It will be heavily reliant on Thunderbolt.
- There will be no internal expandability.
- It will have support for Dual GPU's with three monitor support right out of the box.
- No FW800 or Optical drive
- It will be released in the fall
- It will be a completely new design
On the surface there is a lot to be excited and angry about in those six lines of rumor-monger goodness. The fall release and the absence of FW800 and optical was easily predicted. The new design was also an easy assumption. Please remember that as this info was received there was no opportunity for follow-up questions. Actually I'm pretty sure my sources just sat back and listened knowing that it was only a matter of time before the purveyor of info realized that they shouldn't be saying anything at all. Sometimes you get what you get and you don't get upset.
So here are my thoughts.
No internal expandability sucks. If there are no hard drive bays I'll be pretty upset. All of Apple's machines in the last two years have gotten smaller, thinner and lighter. Recent history tells me Apple's thoughts on "spinning platter" hard drives. I would bet that internal storage as we know it is gone but that might not be entirely bad. Many rumors have floated about proprietary Apple flash storage. We've seen it in the MacBook Pro Retina. Maybe there will be no internal bays for "existing" hard drive technology. Maybe there will be plenty of spots for a new storage medium that Apple will introduce specifically for this machine.
Maybe its a new spec that will allow Apple to deliver a smaller, lighter, thinner machine. Lets hope they have found a way to keep the need for external devices to a minimum.
I speculated back in October that there would only be two PCI slots. I'm guessing that Apple is highly suggesting that they be used for GPU options that will be offered at the time of purchase. All of your expansion options will have to come via Thunderbolt. I'd bet that Apple will be offering its own Thunderbolt chassis but I have no info on this. Throughout Apple's existence they have always abandoned existing hardware standards before other companies. My hunch is that the term "legacy device" was used a lot during the engineering stages when describing PCIe cards.
The mention of dual GPU capabilities is a welcome one. Looks like Nvidia and AMD have known something after all. Rarely have both companies released so many new GPU options on the Mac platform like we've seen in the past few months. Especially since there were still huge questions marks around the one computer these GPUs are targeted for. Earlier Mac Pros have always had the ability to have multiple graphic cards installed but the PCIe slots were never rated the same. The new machine will probably be something more than this. Apple knows that the focus has shifted from processor intensive coding to GPU heavy APIs. Close your eyes for a minute and imagine two NVidia Titan card running in SLI mode with some Apple specific pixie dust tech tying it all together.
Yes, thoughts of a MacMini Pro do come to mind and yes, the earlier rumors of the "modular" Mac Pro seem to be pretty close. I would think that this type of configuration would allow Apple to keep the initial cost of the machine lower with the expense coming in the external configuration options and GPU choices. To truly see any benefit in this type of configuration you have to forget what you know about your existing machine. You are going to have to believe that Apple has thought about all the possible existing workflow's and has a solution that can replace them. You also have to hope that the companies that have relied on PCIe expansion cards are willing to make the switch to Thunderbolt connected devices. Just like Rosetta was the bridge between OS9 and OSX, I think Apple believes that a PCIe expansion chassis is a stopgap device until Thunderbolt specific hardware starts to show up. You might not agree with their idea of a solution and you might hate the idea of change to a workflow that has worked for you for so long but when has Apple ever done anything that hasn't initially infuriated the Pro user?
Personally I'm still in "wait and see" mode. Obviously there are hundreds of questions I would like the answers to. I don't know anything about processor options or speeds. All I can do is hope there will be some mention of this new machine at WWDC in a few weeks.
Let the comments commence ..
Lou Borella
There is talk of iRadio, thinner MacBook Pros, the Johnny Ive iOS entry and maybe even a new OSX.
Most of these are par for the course around this time of year. Glaringly absent from the rumor mill is talk of a new Mac Pro.
I'm here to change that. Here is my first foray as a true Apple "rumor-monger".
If you've been following my posts you've seen me bash some of the major sites for their predictions and assumptions that never really seem more than guesses and questions. After having been on the phone with Apple myself I now realize the frustration some of these journalists encounter. That being said this post is not a guess or an assumption. I actually have a source or two that has some credibility.
Here is what I've been told about the new Mac Pro.
- It will be heavily reliant on Thunderbolt.
- There will be no internal expandability.
- It will have support for Dual GPU's with three monitor support right out of the box.
- No FW800 or Optical drive
- It will be released in the fall
- It will be a completely new design
On the surface there is a lot to be excited and angry about in those six lines of rumor-monger goodness. The fall release and the absence of FW800 and optical was easily predicted. The new design was also an easy assumption. Please remember that as this info was received there was no opportunity for follow-up questions. Actually I'm pretty sure my sources just sat back and listened knowing that it was only a matter of time before the purveyor of info realized that they shouldn't be saying anything at all. Sometimes you get what you get and you don't get upset.
So here are my thoughts.
No internal expandability sucks. If there are no hard drive bays I'll be pretty upset. All of Apple's machines in the last two years have gotten smaller, thinner and lighter. Recent history tells me Apple's thoughts on "spinning platter" hard drives. I would bet that internal storage as we know it is gone but that might not be entirely bad. Many rumors have floated about proprietary Apple flash storage. We've seen it in the MacBook Pro Retina. Maybe there will be no internal bays for "existing" hard drive technology. Maybe there will be plenty of spots for a new storage medium that Apple will introduce specifically for this machine.
Maybe its a new spec that will allow Apple to deliver a smaller, lighter, thinner machine. Lets hope they have found a way to keep the need for external devices to a minimum.
I speculated back in October that there would only be two PCI slots. I'm guessing that Apple is highly suggesting that they be used for GPU options that will be offered at the time of purchase. All of your expansion options will have to come via Thunderbolt. I'd bet that Apple will be offering its own Thunderbolt chassis but I have no info on this. Throughout Apple's existence they have always abandoned existing hardware standards before other companies. My hunch is that the term "legacy device" was used a lot during the engineering stages when describing PCIe cards.
The mention of dual GPU capabilities is a welcome one. Looks like Nvidia and AMD have known something after all. Rarely have both companies released so many new GPU options on the Mac platform like we've seen in the past few months. Especially since there were still huge questions marks around the one computer these GPUs are targeted for. Earlier Mac Pros have always had the ability to have multiple graphic cards installed but the PCIe slots were never rated the same. The new machine will probably be something more than this. Apple knows that the focus has shifted from processor intensive coding to GPU heavy APIs. Close your eyes for a minute and imagine two NVidia Titan card running in SLI mode with some Apple specific pixie dust tech tying it all together.
Yes, thoughts of a MacMini Pro do come to mind and yes, the earlier rumors of the "modular" Mac Pro seem to be pretty close. I would think that this type of configuration would allow Apple to keep the initial cost of the machine lower with the expense coming in the external configuration options and GPU choices. To truly see any benefit in this type of configuration you have to forget what you know about your existing machine. You are going to have to believe that Apple has thought about all the possible existing workflow's and has a solution that can replace them. You also have to hope that the companies that have relied on PCIe expansion cards are willing to make the switch to Thunderbolt connected devices. Just like Rosetta was the bridge between OS9 and OSX, I think Apple believes that a PCIe expansion chassis is a stopgap device until Thunderbolt specific hardware starts to show up. You might not agree with their idea of a solution and you might hate the idea of change to a workflow that has worked for you for so long but when has Apple ever done anything that hasn't initially infuriated the Pro user?
Personally I'm still in "wait and see" mode. Obviously there are hundreds of questions I would like the answers to. I don't know anything about processor options or speeds. All I can do is hope there will be some mention of this new machine at WWDC in a few weeks.
Let the comments commence ..
Lou Borella
