octoMac!

cosmos 1999cosmos 1999
Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
An anonymous source gave hardmac.com (macbidouille) these screenshots of a PC running Mac OS X for Intel (or a secret higher-end Apple MacIntel):











Original article at hardmac.com
Quote:

MacIntel: examples of future models

We are often hearing about what could be potentially lost with MacIntels transitions, without serious information regarding what could be gained with such CPU migration.?That's the reason why we have decided to release 2 screenshots sent to us by an anonymous source.?We do not think that this info will hurt Apple, since it simply demonstrates the huge potential offered to mac users by the future MacIntels.



Without giving much details, those captures shows MacOSX x86 running on a 4 physical CPU-based MacIntel with Hyperthreading enable. One can clearly see 4 physical processors recognized while 8 logical processors are recorded by the CPU monitor.

So MacOSX can really manage without problem any MacIntel based on either physical or logical processors.



It seems, if these screenshots are genuine, that this PC would be a high end system, Xeon server-class, with four Pentium 4 CPUs @ 2.8 GHz each (or two dualcore Pentium XE). Thus with Hyperthreading activated, Mac OS X uses 8 logical processors... and it seems to schedule tasks very well to all of them!

But I thought that Mac OS X was limited by its Mach3 kernel to 2 physical CPUs max. Has it changed?
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 31
    audiopollutionaudiopollution Posts: 3,226member
    I'll take one.
  • Reply 2 of 31
    chopper3chopper3 Posts: 293member
    Quote:

    [i]{B]But I thought that Mac OS X was limited by its Mach3 kernel to 2 physical CPUs max. Has it changed? [/B]



    I don't believe that to be the case.
  • Reply 3 of 31
    thereubsterthereubster Posts: 402member
    This must be the new dual-core "paxville" Xeons. I didn't realise they had hyperthreading as well. So I think Macbidouille must be slightly wrong here, this machine is only 2 CPU's, both dual core with HT = 4 physical/8 logical processors. What most excitng is that it shows (if its not a fake) that OSX x86 is supporting the new chipset for these dual core Xeons (I forget its name) which is MUCH better than the 915G chipset in the Intel Mac dev kits. Also the other thing is Windows XP will not be very good at utilising 8 logical processors apparently (according to Ars) so Apple could have an opening here in the workstation class of hardware to really stick it to Redmond.

    Exciting stuff
  • Reply 4 of 31
    thereubsterthereubster Posts: 402member
    I wonder if the machine they got the screenshots on is a new dell workstation? I went over to the website and tried to configure a new 670 workstation with 2 dual core 2.8Ghz Xeons and it cost $5200 !!!! When those new Powermac G5's get announced on wednesday with 2 970MP's Apple are going to have a field-day with comparing prices to Dell. I can just see Steve "Sure you can get a Dualcore workstation from Dell but it will cost you $5000 bucks" Suddenly $3000 seems like a steal....
  • Reply 5 of 31
    ajpriceajprice Posts: 320member
    Why would the About This Mac box say '4 x Genuine Intel® CPU @ 2.79GHz' and not say what chip it is, instead of '4 x 2.79GHz Intel Pentium 4' or whatever chip it is. Seems fishy to me just for that, but maybe thats how they do it before its released??
  • Reply 6 of 31
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Saw that a little bit back on Ars Technica; if it's legitimate, it's awesome.
  • Reply 7 of 31
    thereubsterthereubster Posts: 402member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ajprice

    Why would the About This Mac box say '4 x Genuine Intel® CPU @ 2.79GHz' and not say what chip it is, instead of '4 x 2.79GHz Intel Pentium 4' or whatever chip it is. Seems fishy to me just for that, but maybe thats how they do it before its released??



    I think if its an engineering sample it will say this (at least in PC's it does) maybe OSX has no id loaded for this chip so it just falls back on saying "its Intel, thats all I know"
  • Reply 8 of 31
    wmfwmf Posts: 1,164member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Thereubster

    This must be the new dual-core "paxville" Xeons.



    Or it could be old off-the-shelf Xeon MPs. OS X unofficially supports a lot of hardware.



    I fully expect that the high-end desktop in Q1 2007 will be a 4-way Xeon system.
  • Reply 9 of 31
    tomatoma Posts: 9member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ajprice

    Why would the About This Mac box say '4 x Genuine Intel® CPU @ 2.79GHz



    it looks right, I have a dual xeon PC and the processors are named "Genuine" intel?
  • Reply 10 of 31
    tubgirltubgirl Posts: 177member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by audiopollution

    I'll take one.



    i'd be happy with 1/8th.
  • Reply 11 of 31
    onlookeronlooker Posts: 5,252member
    That is the Mac I have been waiting for. I hope it has some graphics card options that were unavailable on the PPC Mac's. 8 Logical processors, 4 Physical, 2 actual, or is it 2 physical, 4 actual?



    Whatever the case. = FINALLY!!!!!!!!
  • Reply 12 of 31
    g_warreng_warren Posts: 713member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by onlooker

    That is the Mac I have been waiting for. I hope it has some graphics card options that were unavailable on the PPC Mac's. 8 Logical processors, 4 Physical, 2 actual, or is it 2 physical, 4 actual?



    Whatever the case. = FINALLY!!!!!!!!



    Either way it will be physical
  • Reply 13 of 31
    onlookeronlooker Posts: 5,252member
    OK, then it's 8 Logical, 4 Physical, 2 sockets. Dual core with HT. Wh00t!
  • Reply 14 of 31
    macroninmacronin Posts: 1,174member
    BUMPALICIOUS!!!



    ;^p



    Wish I had such an Apple beasty right now, bet those 8 threads o' goodness would encode this video right quick...



    Now, if we could just get a model with SLI/CrossFire @ dual 16x speeds...



    And Quadros...



    Mmm, Quadros...
  • Reply 15 of 31
    jlljll Posts: 2,713member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Cosmos 1999

    It seems, if these screenshots are genuine, that this PC would be a high end system, Xeon server-class, with four Pentium 4 CPUs @ 2.8 GHz each (or two dualcore Pentium XE). Thus with Hyperthreading activated, Mac OS X uses 8 logical processors... and it seems to schedule tasks very well to all of them!



    Hmm... When HyperThreading is on on the Developer Transition Kit, it shows a graph for the two threads - there's only one per processor in the screenshot.



    The image seems fake to me.
  • Reply 16 of 31
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Strange, and the graphs look like little doubs of the Paint Brush tool more than the typical graphs.
  • Reply 17 of 31
    mynameheremynamehere Posts: 560member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by G_Warren

    Either way it will be physical



    Em...moisture tends to damage computer's innards.
  • Reply 18 of 31
    onlookeronlooker Posts: 5,252member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by JLL

    Hmm... When HyperThreading is on on the Developer Transition Kit, it shows a graph for the two threads - there's only one per processor in the screenshot.



    The image seems fake to me.



    What if it was an internal build, or select build, or something.
  • Reply 19 of 31
    jlljll Posts: 2,713member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by onlooker

    What if it was an internal build, or select build, or something.



    But why wouldn't it show a graph of both threads? It would be a step back.



    In the CPU Monitor there are different sized dots - it could be compression artifacts, but I doubt it.



    Btw. Apple has released both 10.4.2 and 10.4.3 for Intel now, so why would it still be 10.4.1 if it was an internal build?
  • Reply 20 of 31
    altivec_2.0altivec_2.0 Posts: 995member
    I didn't read any before posts, but couldn't this just be a dual Intel board with hyper threading?
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