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Apple Planning 'Something Really Different' for New Mac Pro

It'll be great to re-vigor pro users with something really special. Technical aspect is more or less predictable as we know what Intel Xeons offer today, but there is still space to make the difference with some nifty features in design, usability and energy saving.

I am betting on some new Cube Macintosh, an iconic professional Mac that will go into history. It could be a new Mac flagship not only by design and technology, but also as one of the most reliable and fastest multimedia work horses ever produced!

The main feature could be an aluminum unibody cube case (think of it like Apple Design Award scaled up) that is also an enormous cooler - a board with Xeons is mounted directly into it, in an ideal case there will be no fans at all.

The idea is not to make it as compact as possible, but impressive, silent and powerful, an icon!

The sugar on top would be an anodized aluminum housing that could be color-coded! Just imagine a cool blue cube for single processor systems, red cube for top of line dual Xeons and maybe black or dark violet for CTO machines? I can bet it'll be a hit among pro users - it's not something new that many pro enthusiasts enjoy such details; just check Silicon Graphics custom-built configuration made by fans as SGI always had superb design of their workstations.

There is no need for an optical drive. It has little sense even in multimedia studios, DVD production is going down, and Blu-ray is probably a dead-end, so who needs an optical drive he can use an external one... not a big deal, however this features are important:

- 2 or at most 3 PCI-Express slots, one for graphics card and one(two) for expansion,

- 8 or at least 4 memory slots,

- SSD boot drive built-in (but not soldered!), 128GB should be enough for low-end model,

- four 3.5" HDD drive bays for the ultimate storage capacity (with available adapters for 2.5" SSD)

- last, but not least: a hi-end graphics card available, I hope Apple will not spare on that one, really - we lag behind PCs in graphics, so it's time for some justice there!

Fingers crossed! :)
 
here is something realy different

the new mac pro will probely have

- No superdrive
- No pure hdd option it will be all ssd hybrid or ssd only with the seling point of speed
- no firewire

Usb 3.0
Thunderbolt
Gigabit wifi
10 gb lan

Ability to daisy chain mac pro with thunderbolt

Cpu will be something unexpected performance wise same goes for ram

The old mac pro was build around the design of the 3.5 hdd size what if the new mac pro is build around 2.5 sdd size and without any superdrive we could be facing a much slimmer design
 
Kill me if this happens, but all this ** s h i t ** seems apple opted for an very different form factor, given that Xeon E3 only support single cpu configurations and a single pcie x16 ( I reviewed all the variants) , that could mean only Single Xeon configuration with single gpu, and I fear apple is planning something like an iMac Pro or something like a mini Mac pro , all loaded with mobile versions of the new Xeon and nVidia quadro.

Apple Will surprise me with an real workstation based on Xeon E5v2 in dual cpu Co figuration with upto 16 cores in a NeXT like cube with stackable nVidia quadro plex 7000 or multiple internal gpu... But this info point on another direction
 
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well if it really has no internal expansion, no firewire and no optical it will probably also have no sales.
One of the things about prefessional users vs consumers is that we often have workflows and peripherals that are not negotiable. Yes people stil use ODD, and yes tehre are plenty of firewire hard rives out there. In fact, aside from the arrays I've seen, almost all of the "fast" thunderbolt drives I have seen have 5400rpm disks! It does not matter how high the speed limit on the autobahn is, if you are driving a 3 cylinder Civic.
 
wizard said:
I'm almost 100% certain that won't be the case. Why? Well simply as technology moves forward Apple won't have any choice other than to put the primary computer on one motherboard all soldered together. As the speed of components increase things like RAM will have to be soldered in place. If they do offer RAM expansion the expansion RAM will likely have to be on another interface running at a slower speed. Then you have the issue of the GPU, even that will need to be onboard the motherboard in future machines.

At best I would expect "SSD" cards that can be upgraded interfaced over a fast PCI-Express bus. in fact i'm to the point where I'd doubt that the machine would even have conventional drive bays.

Beyond that I'm not seeing compelling reasons to move to new Mac hardware every other year anyways. Look at Haswell hardware which barely improves the CPU performance and sometimes regresses. Four or three year upgrade cycles are very likely in the future for even demanding users.

Finally I'm hoping for supercomputing networking and system support for adhoc clusters. This would deal with many power users reluctance at upgrades because instead of up grading they could simply ad to a cluster of machines. The marginal increase in performance of processor chips these days means that old hardware simply doesn't become as obsolete as quickly as it use to. These days if you want to double performance in the time frame of a few years you need to add another box. Of course software has to support this.
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Your thinking mirrors mine.

Apple is going to use the same SSD form factor that they use for the laptops, uprated for speed and most likely 4 sockets. Three/Six DRAM sockets depending of processor configuration. 1000 W power supply for dual processor; 800W for single.

No 3 1/2 inch SATAIII drive bays, though maybe a single bay for a 2 1/2 inch SATA III drive.

Dual or single Xeon.

Two PCIe 16x socket spaced for the high end pro graphic and gaming cards. Quadro and FirePro options.

Two Thunderbolt 2 Ports (Four would be better) and USB 3.0, and an SD socket.

Rackmount 2U compatible. Variable pitch fans for sound reduction. Removable handles/feet.

I may not be right on much of this, but external storage is writ large for the next Mac Pro.

EDIT: Am I the only one that wants a TB audio amp? That would kill.
 
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calaverasgrande said:
well if it really has no internal expansion, no firewire and no optical it will probably also have no sales.
One of the things about prefessional users vs consumers is that we often have workflows and peripherals that are not negotiable. Yes people stil use ODD, and yes tehre are plenty of firewire hard rives out there. In fact, aside from the arrays I've seen, almost all of the "fast" thunderbolt drives I have seen have 5400rpm disks! It does not matter how high the speed limit on the autobahn is, if you are driving a 3 cylinder Civic.
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Tim Cook read that and started to laugh...

1st apple don't cares about your work flow, they are *illuminated * about an will bring a new work flow and you'll love that... No option to dismiss to apple, Cook owns you
 
Front page news and an entire article devoted to hearsay from a product manager who gave no actual specifics or details. Uh huh, sure. And even if this were true, it's just puffery. Everyone at Apple always talks about how great their products are, how innovative they are, blah blah. They all drink the same cool aid. Tim Cook even told Congress how innovate Apple is even though the only thing where Apple appears to be innovating is in the area of tax avoidance.

So let's be real. There's probably nothing coming, but when it does come it will be disappointing. That's what the last three years of Apple innovation have led to - disappointment for users and opportunities for competitors.
 
You do realize that no matter what you do the architecture of computers will change dramatically over the next few years.

blkraemer said:
If you can't customize or add third party GPU's... it's a non-starter. I need to be able to add or change my CUDA cores as software outpaces hardware for specific features.
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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.
If this box doesn't have at least 1 PCI slot... also pretty much a deal breaker.
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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.
I need to be able to get out of the box to an expansion chassis at the least. TB alone can't provide enough throughput, especially if its truly only a singe buss of TB over multiple ports.
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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.
No optical drive... good. So make it 19" wide for rack-mount then?
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I'd prefer half rack myself. This allows for two in the place of one or side by side mounting with instrumentation.
Ready to leave Apple in the dust if this doesn't pan out well, and I've owned their products exclusively since the Apple IIe.
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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.
 
I hope it can compete with desktop Silicon Graphics machines. Something as muscular and powerful.

I mean, if is a Mac Pro it has to go all the way.
 
expecting heavy thunderbolt integration and the same reaction when the cube was released all those years back.
 
No i dun want the new mac pro to be build in USA, USA are famous for unreliability of their product. This is not USA 50 years ago, where their products are build to last.

The only reason apple build in usa is to prevent problem from years of tax avoidance.

so apple not building there because it is the best, but for politic. This does not help any consumer at all.

I would rather they build in japan. That will give me much confidence in the product.
 
TMay said:
Your thinking mirrors mine.

Apple is going to use the same SSD form factor that they use for the laptops, uprated for speed and most likely 4 sockets. Three/Six DRAM sockets depending of processor configuration. 1000 W power supply for dual processor; 800W for single.

No 3 1/2 inch SATAIII drive bays, though maybe a single bay for a 2 1/2 inch SATA III drive.

Dual or single Xeon.

Two PCIe 16x socket spaced for the high end pro graphic and gaming cards. Quadro and FirePro options.

Two Thunderbolt 2 Ports (Four would be better) and USB 3.0, and an SD socket.

Rackmount 2U compatible. Variable pitch fans for sound reduction. Removable handles/feet.

I may not be right on much of this, but external storage is writ large for the next Mac Pro.
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I desired most you want, but few facts:

Current Xeon E3 don't foresee dual cpu neither multi Gpu.

Xeon E5v2 not available this year practically (q3 is too far to reach the stores thus yrar) (this one support multiple cpu. W multiple gpu configurations).
 
calaverasgrande said:
Yes people stil use ODD, and yes tehre are plenty of firewire hard rives out there.
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Do you really believe that after 8 years (!) Apple are going to design their new "revolutionary" Mac Pro with the main consideration of providing cheapskate professionals the best way to ...use the same old tech that has been around for a decade?

I don't think so. Still, there'd be problem in connecting external FW devices and ODD to a new Mac Pro, provided that it has Thunderbolt.

calaverasgrande said:
In fact, aside from the arrays I've seen, almost all of the "fast" thunderbolt drives I have seen have 5400rpm disks
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So I take it that you've never ever "seen" any SSD-equipped Thunderbolt peripheral?
 
Would like to see built in FPGAs with the functionality accessible to applications via OSX. Alot of common functions for E.G. Photoshop/video-rendering filters could then be carried out at a hardware level, increasing efficiency and performance.
 
So it's safe to assume the big bulk MacPro tower is dead and it'll be replaced with a new Mac category?

Other than mythical xMac I can't imagine another kind of Mac desktop form factor here? Maybe a mini tower half the size of MacPro chassis and just call Mac?

Well then here I come.
 
It is confirmed that on the new mac pro you can run native 2 operations in the same time (windows and macos) with the new config that will have the first 32 cores intel xeon and 128 GB RAM
 
A highy self centered ide of what professionals need!

Midphase said:
Ugh...sounds like a recipe to end up spending over $10k when all is said and done.
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For some users if could be far cheaper especially if they need a couple of compute nodes.
Here's what professionals need (regardless of the way Apple wants to believe they need):
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No, it is what you think you need as a professional and thus is biased to your needs.
Lots of RAM, and ideally lots of RAM slots so that we don't have to spend outrageous amounts of money to get us up to 64gb or more.
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Well this one I agree with but Apple needs to fix Mac OS so that it can support even more RAM.
Powerful graphics cards, ideally CUDA capable, and multiples of them. Apps like Blackmagic Resolve can leverage multiple cards to offload the processing to.
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Frankly CUDA sucks. Apple needs a good GPU with compute capability but they may very well deliver that in a new way. It is hard to say who has the best solution for a new architecture.
Lots of crazy fast storage. TB technology is exciting, but also ridiculously expensive right now (with no real sign of coming down). Also, crowding your desk with lots of external stuff isn't particularly appealing IMHO.
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TB wil be the likely way bulk storage is realized for the platform. In any event get serious how is a disk array mounted on top of a new Mac Pro any worst than the over grown solution we have now? You are dismissing the solution before you even see it.
FW is still alive and well...sorry! Many people with FW audio and video interfaces will lose their **** if Apple doesn't include at least 1 FW port in there.
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I see no reason at all to support FireWire in new hardware going forward. for people that really need that they can get a port expander box of some sort.
Blu-Ray writeable...yup, shiny plastic disks are still a great way to deliver our work to clients, no optical drive also means no access to our existing libraries of stuff and old backups....not good.
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Actually I'm hoping for a rational optical solution from Apple. It is interesting here that you want an internal when i've known people that swap out their opticals far faster than their GPU cards. it is one of the reasons I'm not to concerned about the possible need for an external. If an internal is supplied great but I won't loose sleep over it missing.
Last but not least, we need a reasonable price for a number of reasons. Some of us with facilities need to purchase a number of machines and cost is definitely a factor. Secondly, technology is evolving rapidly, and we can't hold on to our workstations nearly as long as we used to, so the upgrade price shouldn't be crazy high.
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I agree that the entry price has to be reasonable but for different reasons. The base model really needs to come in at under $1500 and that has to be a decent machine. it is one of the reasons I'm leaning towards a more compact modular mac pro replacement. The idea is to get the cost down for a lot of computational power that can be supplemented as needed with disk arrays or other devices.
A Mac Pro shouldn't appeal to the iPhone crowd, it's a machine specifically designed for a niche usage and it should reflect that.
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True but the current design is suitable for far too few people. They need an architecture that can generate robust sales to a wider audience. That doesn't mean a compromise in computational power though, but it does mean rethinking what is valuable to the greatest number of potential users. Personally I don't want to pay for a huge box that has features I will never use.

If Apple is thinking of giving me a glorified Mac Book Pro without a screen and call it a Mac Pro, they're not going to get my money regardless of how "cool" their new box looks!
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I don't think that is even a remote consideration. However The winds are a blowing so to speak. Machine architecture will change dramatically in the next couple of years. The coming of heterogeneous computing means that even a Mac Mini will be computationally strong, so a Mac Pro needs a design that puts it well ahead of the hardware that will be common in the next couple of years. Yet it will need to be more affordable than ever to make it a reasonable choice over run of the mill desk top processors. You may not like how this rev looks at first but I urge you to take a long informed look at it and where it is going.
 
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