Next-Generation Mac Pro to Receive Temporary Exclusive of Six-Core 'Gulftown' Processor?

[pimentoLoaf]

Will we finally see neato-keano glowing purple cooling fluid in the Mac?

Of course, when Apple puts in 16 cores, Apple will innovate using refurbished shuttle heat-shield tiles for the case, which of course will eliminate the need for any liquid cooling.

 

[Rocketman]

Stated support for 16 GB RAM that is not yet price practical, checks one of the boxes I had. Forward leaning memory support. 2 years from now you will be glad when the cost drops to 1/3 of release price. 10G Ethernet is about the same protocol as Light Peak. So buyers of this system will be crash test dummies in several ways as compared to buyers at 2Q2010, but anybody who can benefit immediately from about double the overall compute capacity will have a rapid break even, on the order of 3-6 months on the hardware cost at typical Apple premium prices.

This will allow the software developers to have the first truly 10.6 and Grand Central and other new feature sets box. They don't really say, but one wonders how many graphics cards this will take as "co-processors".

I think the most expensive Mac ever was around $8000 each base price. The new MacPro, inflation adjusted, is dirt cheap.

Rocketman

 

[Joe The Dragon]

so now the mac pro can start at $3000 with a carp video card

so now the mac pro can start at $3000 with a carp video card

 

[daneoni]

128GB of RAM...now that folks is what you call saturation!

 

[Fwink!]

so now the mac pro can start at $3000 with a carp video card

Sort of why I bought a refurb now, waiting another 6-8 months for a refurb of whatever comes out next would really kill me semi-pro productivity.

I'll go all out on something brand spanking new when my business allows it, and an iMac isn't going to cut it.

 

[theapplefreak]

I'm wondering...
Would the 6 core be better than the Quad Core nehalem they have right now?

 

[krye]

What's the point? Nothing uses the 8 cores that my Mac has now. Seems like all you get is bragging rites.

 

[wetrix]

Don't knock carp video cards. I'm happy with mine. It's so soothing.

 

[tofagerl]

I suggest that everyone here who thinks that their machines aren't being used to their fullest immediately sell them and get cheaper machines more tailored to their needs.
Complaining that further upgrades are unnecessary because you can't utilize 8 CPUs with your porn-surfing and iMovie isn't really called for. And yes, I*am being a little facetious.

 

[rhb]

What's the point? Nothing uses the 8 cores that my Mac has now. Seems like all you get is bragging rites.

Logic does. And I could sure use the extra firepower.

 

[jaw04005]

This time Apple...update the freakin' case.

What does Johnny Ive do these days? They haven’t really changed a case design in ages.

 

[wally21]

x2 nothing new, been on intel's road map for a while now. I just want to know which day I can buy one.

well, that's what this news/rumor gets at. It looks like you might be able to get one some time in January or maybe apple will release it for Macworld in Feb... so, nothing too specific yet but things are getting a little clearer.

 

[Michael73]

What's the point? Nothing uses the 8 cores that my Mac has now. Seems like all you get is bragging rites.

In thinking about this more, I'm correcting my earlier statement and in the process also yours...OS X and associated programs can't use 8 cores BUT running multiple virtual machines could. So, using VMWare Fusion I run XP which I can assign 2 cores and some RAM. I imagine I could also simultaneously run Win 7 and some Linux machines assigning each 2-4 cores and some RAM. While no ONE OS or program could max out this architecture, multiple virtual machines certainly could.

 

[casik]

Daaang... I want one...

 

[DoFoT9]

What does Johnny Ive do these days? They haven’t really changed a case design in ages. I guess they’ve ran out of ideas.

maybe they feel that its the best possible design heat dissipation wise and cost wise? for them to design, test, build and implement a new case wouldnt be cheap i daresay.

 

[mikes70mustang]

I guess this machine will see the first LightPeak connectors as well.

I was wondering when fiber would make it into the home. It being used for most mass data transfer now. All the cool stuff and fast speeds you get from the cable company, thank fiber optic for that. I cant wait for it all to exponentially faster, since its basically software limited now.

 

[tooz]

128GB of RAM.... would you even need a SSD

 

[DoFoT9]

I was wondering when fiber would make it into the home. It being used for most mass data transfer now. All the cool stuff and fast speeds you get from the cable company, thank fiber optic for that. I cant wait for it all to exponentially faster, since its basically software limited now.

hate to be australia. we are pretty much 15-20years away from FTTH.

 

[jaw04005]

is he talking HT cores?

From what I understand no. It’s 6 real cores, 6 “fake” HT cores. So, we’d assume Apple would use two of these in one machine, making it 12 real cores with 12 “fake” HT cores, 24 cores total (in Activity Monitor).

 

[Andy348]

Where do they get these names???

"Nehalem" or "Gulftown"?? I'd like to open up these Mac Pros and see if those processors really look like a gulf town!

 

[Umbongo]

Where do they get these names???

"Nehalem" or "Gulftown"?? I'd like to open up these Mac Pros and see if those processors really look like a gulf town!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_codenames

 

[mikes70mustang]

Where do they get these names???

"Nehalem" or "Gulftown"?? I'd like to open up these Mac Pros and see if those processors really look like a gulf town!

Be careful with those. Get too rough and the levee will break.

 

[crobi]

but but where is the new iMac?

no news since october first

 

[jaw04005]

maybe they feel that its the best possible design heat dissipation wise and cost wise? for them to design, test, build and implement a new case wouldnt be cheap i daresay.

It’s never bothered them to come up with a new chassis before for any of their products. In the G3/G4 era, we were changing chassis all the time. They’ve had this particular case around since 2003. While it’s still a great case, it’s a little odd that they haven’t updated it.

This is the same company that used to swap the color palette out every other revision just for the hell of it.

They’ve been coasting on the 2003-2004 era designs (aluminum PowerBook, Mac mini, Power Mac G5, iMac G5) now for years just slightly updating them when necessary (unibody, aluminum iMac). When you’re talking six years of the same basic case design, the wow factor wears off.

Of course, it’s 100x better than what their PC counterparts are offering. Heh. Maybe they think what’s the point?

 

[brubeast]

6 in the Mac Pro. How about 4 in the iMac?

No, Apple's more concerned about making the iMac even thinner, cause it's too hard to scoot across a desk as it is now. Why add things like more power when you could say "even thinner" in the ad? I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that the Radeon 4850 or equivalent will magically disappear in the new thinner iMac.

As for the Mac Pro, why does Apple insist on the Xeon processor? The Core i7 920 2.66 GHz costs $270, yet they force us to pay 2.5 grand for a rig with with a horrible nVidia card? This has gotten ridiculous.

I have been dreaming about a Hackintosh; they have pushed me over the edge. I will be just fine spending $1200 for a Hack Pro with an i7 920 o/c'd to 3.6Ghz, 12 gigs of RAM, and a GeForce 260. This rig will beat the $3500 8-cores in most tasks, and be almost as fast in multicore rendering tasks, since it'll be running at such a high clock speed.

I recommend the rest of you look into a similar solution until Mac Pro prices come down by at least 33%, and/or they stop forcing us to buy server processors we really don't need.