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Trends toward modular Mac Pro

M

MiJuConcept

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 25, 2013
106
5
Australia
25 years ago Apple Computer (the rainbow logo company) responded** to a very enthusiastic proposal for a modular Macintosh. It was a concept based on the common ideology of the day. Fat Mac's sitting on top of fat hard drives with multiple power cords.

In 1992, towers of computing were adorable beige constructions. It seemed plausible at the time if someone would delete the small black and white monitor and present the processing unit in a small box, it would look like an external hard drive.

The idea went one step further, it borrowed something from mainframe design and considered the following;

* Power supply base
* Hard drive shell
* Floppy drive shell
* Cooling module
* CPU shell

For a moment, the Mac Mini seemed to fall into this category with various aftermarket attachments with perfectly blended styling. But the common power brick remained elusive. Now it seems highly likely that Apple will revisit this concept given the strength of blade computing design and high density (quad processor) builds from HPE (e.g. DL560)

I look forward to seeing what Apple will do with a concept it has never fully explored. It has been a long time coming.

**Back then almost everyone who wrote to Apple got a reply on Apple letterhead.

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MiJuConcept said:
25 years ago Apple Computer (the rainbow logo company) responded** to a very enthusiastic proposal for a modular Macintosh. It was a concept based on the common ideology of the day. Fat Mac's sitting on top of fat hard drives with multiple power cords.

In 1992, towers of computing were adorable beige constructions. It seemed plausible at the time if someone would delete the small black and white monitor and present the processing unit in a small box, it would look like an external hard drive.

The idea went one step further, it borrowed something from mainframe design and considered the following;

* Power supply base
* Hard drive shell
* Floppy drive shell
* Cooling module
* CPU shell

For a moment, the Mac Mini seemed to fall into this category with various aftermarket attachments with perfectly blended styling. But the common power brick remained elusive. Now it seems highly likely that Apple will revisit this concept given the strength of blade computing design and high density (quad processor) builds from HPE (e.g. DL560)

I look forward to seeing what Apple will do with a concept it has never fully explored. It has been a long time coming.

**Back then almost everyone who wrote to Apple got a reply on Apple letterhead.
Click to expand...

For Apple, may be this is the definition of modular :p
iPad-Internal-Hardware-Teardown-Complete.jpg
 
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While I hope that Apple will make a standard tower (like the cheese grater) but with updated components, my hunch is that their "modularity" will end up being very similar to that of products by RED Digital Cinema (but with computers instead of cameras, obviously).
L0e1iPr.jpg
 
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I think how Apple thinks about modular is somewhat different than what many of us thinks about it. If you see in the second quote Apple already has a modular Mac...

As part of doing a new Mac Pro — it is, by definition, a modular system — we will be doing a pro display as well. Now you won’t see any of those products this year; we’re in the process of that. We think it’s really important to create something great for our pro customers who want a Mac Pro modular system, and that’ll take longer than this year to do.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/06/t...-john-ternus-on-the-state-of-apples-pro-macs/
Click to expand...

Later in the same interview:
...I think, as you talk about the pro user, the fact that our user base is split over notebooks, all-in-one desktops and modular desktops is important. We...
Click to expand...
 
The original internal name was Stackintosh
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krakman said:
i posted my idea a while back in another thread:

View attachment 752138
Click to expand...

You may have omitted the LED lighting / HomePod module, $999

I would expect a "plethora" of new Home Automation products and well known vendors in home security / safety (lock companies)

Plethora.jpg
 
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MiJuConcept said:
PCIe died a long time ago. I thought we all agreed on that.

https://www.nextplatform.com/2016/05/04/nvlink-takes-gpu-acceleration-next-level/

There is no need for Apple to conform to an old standard if their intention is to assist designers.
Click to expand...
Name all of the NVlink systems on the market:

(crickets)

How about the PCIe V4 and PCIe V5 work? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#PCI_Express_4.0

PCIe is not dead, and saying that proprietary intra-GPU links killed it is absurd.

Especially absurd on a forum dedicated to an eco-system that doesn't support NVlink in any way.
 
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AidenShaw said:
Name all of the NVlink systems on the market: (crickets) How about the PCIe V4 and PCIe V5 work? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#PCI_Express_4.0 PCIe is not dead, and saying that proprietary intra-GPU links killed it is absurd. Especially absurd on a forum dedicated to an eco-system that doesn't support NVlink in any way.
Click to expand...

Why do you believe Apple is not capable of pushing the limits so far into super-computing with its engineering team. They have proven many times in the last 5 years what they are capable of designing.

Intel is pushing rapidly towards ceramic-base CPU with fully integrated bus controller onboard. RAM is now also storage. GPU are now also full computers in their own right.

The "absurd" is normal now. There is no limit, why should there be.

Ever since the 2013 Mac Pro, Tim Cook has driven the message of innovation very strongly. American ingenuity. How is he going to push this concept using vanilla technology.
 
h9826790 said:
PCIe slots only died on Apple computer long time ago. It’s still one of the most important current and forseable future interface on all high end computer (except Mac, if you consider they are “high end”).
Click to expand...

Im not going to say I disagree with you, I will say NVIDIA has no intention of going down that road.
 
aaronhead14 said:
While I hope that Apple will make a standard tower (like the cheese grater) but with updated components, my hunch is that their "modularity" will end up being very similar to that of products by RED Digital Cinema (but with computers instead of cameras, obviously).
L0e1iPr.jpg
Click to expand...


I am afraid you will be correct with your thesis. I sure do have the same thought. If you look at the current pricing, the iMac Pro took the Mac Pro price tag/segment/slot away. I think Apple will absolutely deliver on a new Mac Pro, but way way above the iMac Pro price tag. - And that will be exactly the "super expensive RED price tag".

Either way, the semi professionals will womit their souls out.
 
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