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The Mac Mini A12Z, who would’ve thought..

Hessel89

Hessel89

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 27, 2017
595
328
Netherlands
Considering MacOS supposedly takes care of all app compatibilbity it doesn’t even seem too big of a leap,
my concerns are primarely with plugin support for DAWs and my major concern is: will it support Thunderbolt 3.
If those two things turn out alright I can definitely see myself making the switch.

what are your thoughts?
 
Amazing.

Love the performance of the A12Z in my 12.9 iPad Pro, and with better thermals they’ll probably clock that puppy up 20% or more. Gonna be a wild ride.

I’m not a developer, but I would love to buy one to tinker with.

For sure, it will support TB3. How else would they be running that Pro Display XDR :):)
^^EDIT: I was wrong, see post #5
 
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BeatCrazy said:
Amazing.

Love the performance of the A12Z in my 12.9 iPad Pro, and with better thermals they’ll probably clock that puppy up 20% or more. Gonna be a wild ride.

I’m not a developer, but I would love to buy one to tinker with.

For sure, it will support TB3. How else would they be running that Pro Display XDR :):)
Click to expand...

not sure about TB3 though.. I think you can run the Pro Display XDR over USB C actually.

Now that I think about it, it makes me very nervous, as I’ve invested heavily in TB3 hardware over the last two years..
 
Hessel89 said:
not sure about TB3 though.. I think you can run the Pro Display XDR over USB C actually.

Now that I think about it, it makes me very nervous, as I’ve invested heavily in TB3 hardware over the last two years..
Click to expand...

Yeah, good point. I guess we’ll find out shortly. Either way, looks like they’ve figured out a way to keep the Pro Display XDR viable for the transition.
 
I was wrong! Pro Display XDR going to be supported via USB-C, so no Thunderbolt 3.
IMG_0040.jpg
 
Man that is a step backwards as far as the ports are concerned. Hope that isn't what the new Mac mini looks like.
 
chrfr said:
That doesn't mean you won't be able to use it when production Macs are released. I'd expect production computers to have USB4. This is pretty much just an iPad Pro in a Mac enclosure.
Click to expand...

But USB4 isn't necessarily compatible with TB3 right? Or is it?
 
chrfr said:
It is: https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/4/18246182/usb-4-thunderbolt-3-specs-features-release-date
Click to expand...

This article basicly states that both standards have the same specs, I get that, but wouldn't developers be required to build in some sort of ''Forward compatibility'' with USB4 in the development stage of a TB3 product? Which obviously hasn't happened on 2 year old TB3 products.

My Audio Interface (Presonus Quantum2626) for example specifically uses the PCI standard (over Thunderbolt 3) in order to stream audio directly into the CPU. With USB this simply is not possible.
 
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im excited as well hoping for some press coverage of the dev unit see how early apps and such really proform but it is intreaguing sad to most likley loose windows native compatability always wanted to get a current mini with egpu for mac/gaming on one system but gonna hold off and see how this whole arm thing goes
 
BeatCrazy said:
Love the performance of the A12Z in my 12.9 iPad Pro, and with better thermals they’ll probably clock that puppy up 20% or more. Gonna be a wild ride.
Click to expand...

I assume Apple will have a new AS/ARM chip available for the production/consumer product too, the next complete iteration, or an X or Z flavor of the 13 series.

The thing I'm finding supper interesting about this in the context of a Mini, is the potential for a much better GPU. In fact, I'm hoping we get some graphic performance benchmarks from devs taking the DTK to compare against the current machine!
 
Hessel89 said:
Considering MacOS supposedly takes care of all app compatibilbity it doesn’t even seem too big of a leap,
my concerns are primarely with plugin support for DAWs and my major concern is: will it support Thunderbolt 3.
If those two things turn out alright I can definitely see myself making the switch.

what are your thoughts?
Click to expand...
BeatCrazy said:
I was wrong! Pro Display XDR going to be supported via USB-C, so no Thunderbolt 3.View attachment 926014
Click to expand...
troy14 said:
Isn’t Thunderbolt proprietary intel hardware?
Click to expand...

Apple likely isn't going to use Thunderbolt 3 in ARM Macs at all. What we're going to see instead is USB4, which is Intel's open-sourcing of Thunderbolt 3 (given that Thunderbolt 3 is basically a mega-backwards compatible upgrade to the USB 3.2 USB-C standard anyway). USB4 was a necessary hurdle to Apple making this move (for exactly the same concerns the OP had), and now that it has been ratified, Apple is likely going to be first to hop on board with it on ARM Macs. Wouldn't surprise me if it made it to the iPad Pros as well.
 
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D.T. said:
I'm hoping we get some graphic performance benchmarks from devs taking the DTK to compare against the current machine!
Click to expand...

Might have to wait for that. :)

MacRumors said:
Apple has many other strict rules in place for the A12Z-based Mac mini. For instance, developers are forbidden from disassembling the machine, running any benchmark tests on it, sharing it with others, or discussing it on social media.
Click to expand...

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ed-at-genius-bar-or-service-provider.2242768/
 
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TB3 is 40 gbps
USB-C is only 10 gbps

I would have to assume Apple would have to at least match the speed of their old machines with a newly released USB4... since they obviously won't be going with TB3 (Intel protocol).

That being said... I can't wait for a new Mac mini, or iMac with the new ARM CPUs!
 
tpivette89 said:
... snip ...

I would have to assume Apple would have to at least match the speed of their old machines with a newly released USB4... since they obviously won't be going with TB3 (Intel protocol).

... snip ...
Click to expand...

Perhaps you missed this: "On 24 May 2017, Intel announced that Thunderbolt 3 would become a royalty-free standard to OEMs and chip manufacturers in 2018, as part of an effort to boost the adoption of the protocol."

Source: Wkikpedia
 
I’m all in on an Apple Silicon Mac ASAP.

(This is from someone who’s been running Hacks for a decade)
 
Hessel89 said:
Well that sucks! Invested thousands into TB3 hardware.
Click to expand...

I'm not happy about this either. I bought a first generation LG 5K Ultrafine and I was hoping to use it for a long time. Now I may have to sell it over the coming months if it won't be compatible with future Macs :mad:
 
Kaida said:
Someone please take some photos of the back ports and do a teardown!
Click to expand...

I dont think Apple would like a tear down very much considering they are still the property of Apple and must be returned. What really would have been is if Apple had just done a tear down in the lab for a WWDC video.
 
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