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Dropping a Westmere into a 2009 Mac Pro using 2010 EFI

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DSchwartz88

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 18, 2006
419
0
Before everyone says "IT DOESNT HAVE B1 STEPPING!!!" hear me out.

The new 2010 Mac Pro's that were just released have options for both the 4-8 core and 6-12 core option. This coupled with the fact that nothing has changed other than graphics cards etc. makes me think if someone could extract the EFI code, they could just drop it into an 09 and it would include B1 stepping, so people like me could just drop in a 3.33 Westmere and call it a day.

Again, I have no idea about anything EFI, it just seems like much more a possbility now that both the 4-8 core and 6-12 core versions are running on basically the same machine.

Ideas? Thoughts? Comments? Concerns?
 
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Inconsequential

macrumors 68000
Sep 12, 2007
1,978
1
DSchwartz88 said:
Before everyone says "IT DOESNT HAVE B1 STEPPING!!!" hear me out.

The new 2010 Mac Pro's that were just released have options for both the 4-8 core and 6-12 core option. This coupled with the fact that nothing has changed other than graphics cards etc. makes me think if someone could extract the EFI code, they could just drop it into an 09 and it would include B1 stepping, so people like me could just drop in a 3.33 Westmere and call it a day.

Again, I have no idea about anything EFI, it just seems like much more a possbility now that both the 4-8 core and 6-12 core versions are running on basically the same machine.

Ideas? Thoughts? Comments? Concerns?
Click to expand...

I personally think the board etc are EXACTLY the same.

All they've changed is the GPU and CPU lineup.

Find a way of extracting the EFI and updating the 2009 Mac Pro and you have a 2010 Mac Pro, just like that. :cool:
 
VirtualRain

VirtualRain

macrumors 603
Aug 1, 2008
6,304
118
Vancouver, BC
This is not trivial. I don't see it happening.

The only way I could see this happening is if Apple releases a firmware update for the 2010 machines sometime down the line and a hacker is able to get it to install in an 09 by overcomming any system check the firmware does.

It would be nice if Apple simply provided the 2010 firmware for 2009 machines, but that's not in their nature. :(
 
AZREOSpecialist

AZREOSpecialist

Suspended
Mar 15, 2009
2,354
1,278
It's unbelievable to me that we have smart people around here who can put together Hackintoshes with an inordinate amount of code customization but we can't seem to be able to pull Apple's EFI firmware and move it to another machine?
 
VirtualRain

VirtualRain

macrumors 603
Aug 1, 2008
6,304
118
Vancouver, BC
It just occurred to me that the Apple firmware is probably encrypted, making any hacks to it impossible.

The only likely way to update the firmware is to update the entire logic board upon which the firmware chip resides... making it an expensive proposition that will make upgrading the whole machine a more viable option.
 
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nanofrog

macrumors G4
May 6, 2008
11,719
3
AZREOSpecialist said:
It's unbelievable to me that we have smart people around here who can put together Hackintoshes with an inordinate amount of code customization but we can't seem to be able to pull Apple's EFI firmware and move it to another machine?
Click to expand...
EFI is harder to work with than BIOS, and there's fewer resources available as well. This will make it harder to accomplish IMO.
 
N

nanofrog

macrumors G4
May 6, 2008
11,719
3
VirtualRain said:
There are no physical logic board updates necessary for anything Apple has announced. Even faster memory bus speeds, don't require any physical board changes.
Click to expand...
Yep.

I was originally just looking at the store's page, not the MP page, and hadn't spotted that 1333MHz is now going to be supported. Nice they got that fixed. :D
 
Spanky Deluxe

Spanky Deluxe

macrumors demi-god
Mar 17, 2005
5,282
1,746
London, UK
VirtualRain said:
The only way I could see this happening is if Apple releases a firmware update for the 2010 machines sometime down the line and a hacker is able to get it to install in an 09 by overcomming any system check the firmware does.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately the only way that would likely happen is if there are some major flaws with the 2010 machines which can only be fixed with an EFI update. The likelihood of this is actually quite small in my opinion though since if they are using basically the same boards as in the 2009 Mac Pros then they've had what, a year and a half to find all the bugs?
 
AZREOSpecialist

AZREOSpecialist

Suspended
Mar 15, 2009
2,354
1,278
I will offer a $100 bounty to anyone who can enable my 2009 Mac Pro to reliably run the new 6-core CPU parts. Anyone else?
 
AZREOSpecialist

AZREOSpecialist

Suspended
Mar 15, 2009
2,354
1,278
Apple issued an EFI 1.4 update to 2009 Mac Pro in January of this year. Any chance that may have quietly added support for the new CPUs?
 
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nanofrog

macrumors G4
May 6, 2008
11,719
3
AZREOSpecialist said:
Apple issued an EFI 1.4 update to 2009 Mac Pro in January of this year. Any chance that may have quietly added support for the new CPUs?
Click to expand...
Not likely, particularly as that was before any of the 32nm parts shipped from Intel. Granted, board makers/system vendors would have had Engineering Samples to work with, it would have been too soon for it to be validated properly.
 
S

Spacedust

macrumors 6502a
May 24, 2009
999
160
We need to wait for any update for Mac Pro 2010 EFI. Then modify it to support Mac Pro 2009 and we're done ;)

If something fails Mac Pro will open Superdrive tray prompting for firmware restoration CD :)
 
I

Inconsequential

macrumors 68000
Sep 12, 2007
1,978
1
Spacedust said:
We need to wait for any update for Mac Pro 2010 EFI. Then modify it to support Mac Pro 2009 and we're done ;)

If something fails Mac Pro will open Superdrive tray prompting for firmware restoration CD :)
Click to expand...

Can't we use the 2010 Firmware restoration CD to do this?

Or is that only released when Apple release a firmware for it...
 
N

nanofrog

macrumors G4
May 6, 2008
11,719
3
Concorde Rules said:
Can't we use the 2010 Firmware restoration CD to do this?

Or is that only released when Apple release a firmware for it...
Click to expand...
In this case, you'd need to wait for a newer edition that includes the ROM file for the 2010 systems.

As per making it work, you'd need an EFI Flash Utility that won't look for Apple's authentication (just proceeds to flash the ROM with the directed source file). Even then, it may not work if there's any difference, such as an offset to the start location (burn starts at some other ROM address instead of the first location).
 
Cindori

Cindori

macrumors 68040
Jan 17, 2008
3,527
378
Sweden
I wish this thread was deleted, it will shed light on something Apple can easily prevent, and something they really would like to. until the actual release I suggest any talk or work or progress is discussed on other places - irc channel maybe. I definately won't share mine here.
 
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nanofrog

macrumors G4
May 6, 2008
11,719
3
Cindori said:
I wish this thread was deleted, it will shed light on something Apple can easily prevent, and something they really would like to. until the actual release I suggest any talk or work or progress is discussed on other places - irc channel maybe. I definately won't share mine here.
Click to expand...
Definitely not a bad idea.
 
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