Mac Pro To Continue Quad-Core Tradition? Woodcrest?

[RichP]

Well, 2 PM EST is the intel conference to intro the new chip..

...everything seems rather quiet on the rumor-front for new Xserve or Powermac/MacPro. Seem a little out-of-order for apple NOT to release stuff right on the heels of the new processors; I cant imagine Steve releasing a Kentsfield MacPro a few months later than the PC manufacturers, would be very "me-too" which is very un-Apple-like.

 

[Arnaud]

Well, 2 PM EST is the intel conference to intro the new chip..

...everything seems rather quiet on the rumor-front for new Xserve or Powermac/MacPro. Seem a little out-of-order for apple NOT to release stuff right on the heels of the new processors; I cant imagine Steve releasing a Kentsfield MacPro a few months later than the PC manufacturers, would be very "me-too" which is very un-Apple-like.

1st option : Intel releases Woodcrest today, and Jobs announces the pro-line today as well - in the same meeting.

2nd option : Intel releases Woodcrest today, and Jobs announces the pro-line tomorrow - because tomorrow is Tuesday

3rd option : any other option, confirming the fact that rumors are, er, rumors...

Options 1 or 2 would suit me best...

 

[efxgraphics]

1st option : Intel releases Woodcrest today, and Jobs announces the pro-line today as well - in the same meeting.

2nd option : Intel releases Woodcrest today, and Jobs announces the pro-line tomorrow - because tomorrow is Tuesday

3rd option : any other option, confirming the fact that rumors are, er, rumors...

Options 1 or 2 would suit me best...

As of 10:30 Central time the Mac Online store was down "We'll be back soon. We are busy updating the store for you and will be back within the hour" ........

 

[RichP]

The store always says that "within the hour" so its possible that it could be closed for a while today; I cant imagine apple releasing anything with the new chip until intel makes the announcements first.

Then again, Intels talk today is on vPro, not so much the chip itself.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

With two 3.5" disk slots (1.5 TB today), integrated graphics plus a PCIe x16 slot for a separate graphics card, and a couple of PCIe x4 slots for other things *cough ATSC/NTSC tuners*...

Why x4s? Why not an x8 and two x4s (with x16 physical slots) like the Power Mac has?

Although that would take extra chipset support. The current chipset lineup will have an x16, plus 6 more channels. If one channel goes to gigabit ethernet, that leaves 5. How about an x4 slot and an x1 slot? That would be easily possible cheaply.

On the Mac Pro, I would expect to see a Woodcrest chipset that supports multiple x8 slots, though.

 

[poppe]

An interesting point. I am of the opinion that the 360, and even moreso, the PS3 are on their way to making Gaming PCs obsolete. It's just a fact, that there is a great deal of overhead associated with running games on a PC, to an extreme extent with that PC runs Windows. On a console, highly specialized code runs many times as fast, which is why a console that is slow when compared to a PC still produces good graphics. While there will always be the fanboy whose parents have too much money and are hellbent on yuppifying their brood, in the almost immediate future, the demand for high-end gaming PCs will drop.

I think quite the opposite. With the transition of computers into the living room I believe more and more computers will make their way as consoles. While deal with if this platform has that game and that game is on that platform when (running windows speaking) you dont much have to worry about that.

Let alone anytime you computer by the TV begins to lag in anyway. Just add some ram/graphics cards/ processor. No reason to justify dropping $400-$800 on a console when you can much more easily justify dropping that on a computer.

 

[Evangelion]

I think quite the opposite. With the transition of computers into the living room I believe more and more computers will make their way as consoles.

I think that consoles will become more and more computer-like in the future. When that happens, we have come full circle again.

Think about it: PS3 will cost 500 - 700 bucks. And that quite a bit money for a console. But is it that much money if that one device can replace your console, DVD-player (yes, consoles can act as DVD-players even today, but they are not GOOD DVD-players) and that computer of yours? Sony has stated that PS3 will support Linux. And while PS2 did so as well, running Linux on PS2 was always a bit "geeky". What if Sony made it uber-simple to boot PS3 in to Linux instead? While Cell might not be ideal for general-purpose computing, it would still be fast enough for most tasks. That Linux-PS3 could be used for web-surfing, email, IM, word-processing and the like. And for many people, that's all they do with their computers.

 

[Arnaud]

I think that consoles will become more and more computer-like in the future. When that happens, we have come full circle again.

Well... the consoles are becoming computer-like and media-oriented, the dvd-players/tv-recorders are becoming media-centers oriented to computer activity, and the computers have great gaming capacity and media skills; they all drool on being connected to big HD plasma screens...

So, when Sony releases a media-center/computer/console/media-center/computer, what will that be? A vaio-computer which took over media-centers and consoles, an über-console, or a fully autonomous media-center ?

A tri-character version of the chicken-before-the-egg question ?

 

[gilgalad101]

I think all the new macpros should have atleast quad cores. Maybe for the top-o-the-line, they can have oct cores. If apple made the move to dual cores for the imac, macbook/pro, and mac mini, then why wouldn't they step it up with the macpro? I would also like to see some sli support too. As for harddrives, some raptors would be nice.

 

[~Shard~]

I think all the new macpros should have atleast quad cores. Maybe for the top-o-the-line, they can have oct cores. If apple made the move to dual cores for the imac, macbook/pro, and mac mini, then why wouldn't they step it up with the macpro? I would also like to see some sli support too. As for harddrives, some raptors would be nice.

And exactly which chipset do you propose Apple use for these octo-core machines?

 

[Arnaud]

You could still stack up 4xMacMini: you would get a "Desktop Tower", with 4xCoreDuo, 256Mb video ram, 4 DVD-burners, and a max of 8Gb ram (total)...

Advantages: variations from 2xMacMini upwards; can be set flat by layers of 2 or 4 MacMini as a support for the screen.

 

[gilgalad101]

And exactly which chipset do you propose Apple use for these octo-core machines?

I have no clue but they could figure something out.

 

[~Shard~]

I have no clue but they could figure something out.

Haha - thanks for the laugh. I suppose they'll just stick a Tigerton or Dunnington in there, right? Yeah, piece of cake...

 

[Multimedia]

Oct Cores Can't Happen In 2006

I think all the new macpros should have atleast quad cores. Maybe for the top-o-the-line, they can have oct cores. If apple made the move to dual cores for the imac, macbook/pro, and mac mini, then why wouldn't they step it up with the macpro? I would also like to see some sli support too. As for harddrives, some raptors would be nice.

8 Core is not possible until next Spring or so. You obviously don't know what you are writing about.

However, if this were about 9 months out from now, you would be totally correct in what that lineup will be. All Mac Pros will have minimum 4 cores and top will be 8 cores in Spring of 2007. So you're thinking in the right direction, just about 9 months in advance of the reality.

For now an expensive Quad Core Woody is the best anyone can hope for - probably at least $3499 without much RAM and one 500GB SATA/300 HD.

I plan to pass on this generation and wait for the 8 core next Spring shipping with Leopard. But it'll be fun to see how well the Quad Core Woody sells into the wealthy Super-Professional markets. I imagine it will be quite a popular and most powerful workhorse albeit pricier than we've seen to date. With Parallels along for the ride, it should take corporate creative computing to new heights.

 

[~Shard~]

8 Core is not possible unti next Spring or so. You obviously don't know what you are writing about.

Thank you for putting that another way...

 

[DavidCar]

Thank you for putting that another way...

I read that some of the Woodcrest (Dual Core) servers announced lately have been designed to accomodate the heat dissipation requirements for the Clovertown (Quad Core) chips, so that you just drop in the new chip without changing anything else about the machine.

... and we just have the rest of this week to find out if I and some others are right in our prediction that Apple will introduce a Woodcrest machine now that the chips are officially available. (I forget, but is Wednesday the new Tuesday, or are we back to Tuesdays again?)

 

[Peace]

I read that some of the Woodcrest (Dual Core) servers announced lately have been designed to accomodate the heat dissipation requirements for the Clovertown (Quad Core) chips, so that you just drop in the new chip without changing anything else about the machine.

... and we just have the rest of this week to find out if I and some others are right in our prediction that Apple will introduce a Woodcrest machine now that the chips are officially available. (I forget, but is Wednesday the new Tuesday, or are we back to Tuesdays again?)

Thursday's the new Tuesday and Monday's the new Wednesday so I'd say Thursday might see the Woody in the new XServe

 

[Multimedia]

No Reason To Expect Quad Mac Pro Announcement B4 August 7

I read that some of the Woodcrest (Dual Core) servers announced lately have been designed to accomodate the heat dissipation requirements for the Clovertown (Quad Core) chips, so that you just drop in the new chip without changing anything else about the machine.

... and we just have the rest of this week to find out if I and some others are right in our prediction that Apple will introduce a Woodcrest machine now that the chips are officially available. (I forget, but is Wednesday the new Tuesday, or are we back to Tuesdays again?)

I don't think Apple feels any pressure to announce the Quad Woody B4 the August 7 Steve&CompanyNote. Apple needs thousands of systems to be ready and waiting to customize and ship to all those developers who's companies can afford to let them all buy one for over $4k loaded. I don't see any reason for Apple to announce any new Mac Pros until the WWDC.

I really don't understand why some of you do.

 

[Macinposh]

I don't think Apple feels any pressure to announce the Quad Woody B4 the August 7 Steve&CompanyNote.



I really don't understand why some of you do.

I do! I do!




Imho, WWCD has lost part of it´s prestige now with the intellisation.
Businesswise,ramping up the production now when the woodie has been released would be wiser.

Or, could someone enlighten me why giving your direct competitors 1.5 month headway and wait for some magical date?

The product is ready = Sell it.



Unless,the product isnt ready.
The MacPro might have run into some production problems and they´ll delay the publishing now...well...couple of weeks? After that they have lost the momentum and might as well release the woodie in august.


And nooo...dont give me that "They will wait for CS3 to come out" thingy, because when it´ll come out, the quad cores would be out, and apple would miss one product cycle (=$$$$$) totally.That would kind of suck.

 

[Multimedia]

What is an intellisation?

I do! I do!
Imho, WWCD has lost part of it´s prestige now with the intellisation.

What is an intellisation? . I googled that word and found some IBM computer by that name. What has that got to do with the WWDC's prestige? And what makes you think Apple is competing with any of the PC makers? I sure don't.

 

[sbrage2000]

What is an intellisation?

I think he meant Intel-ization, meaning converting Mac processors to Intel. I don't know how that affects WWDC's prestige either

And what makes you think Apple is competing with any of the PC makers?

Possibly the fact that Apple's latest marketing angle is "Hey buy a Mac instead of a PC because Macs run Windows too". Of course, I'm just speculating.

 

[sbrage2000]

Or, could someone enlighten me why giving your direct competitors 1.5 month headway and wait for some magical date?

The product is ready = Sell it.

I have to agree with you. Apple isn't doing themselves any favors by delaying the release of the MacPros, especially if they hope to win over any PC converts. As of July 23, there will be a LOT of attractive PC options on the market. Sure, this will have little or no impact on Apple's current fan base. Diehard Mac users will wait as long as it takes. But clearly, Apple has an interest in attracting PC users (ala Boot Camp) and the longer they wait, the less they get. At the very least, Apple needs to come out with a definite release date.

 

[Peace]

I have to agree with you. Apple isn't doing themselves any favors by delaying the release of the MacPros, especially if they hope to win over any PC converts. As of July 23, there will be a LOT of attractive PC options on the market. Sure, this will have little or no impact on Apple's current fan base. Diehard Mac users will wait as long as it takes. But clearly, Apple has an interest in attracting PC users (ala Boot Camp) and the longer they wait, the less they get. At the very least, Apple needs to come out with a definite release date.

Maybe the MacPro is going to have something "different" in it ?

I really believe it's going to be the showcase product coming out of the Intel/Apple camp.

 

[Pistol Pete]

I am so stoked for the new machine!!!!

 

[MacRumoron]

i want to get this

but i also want the MBP.. sighh if only i was rich