macronin

fastasleep said:

macxpress said:
a shitty plastic box with off the shelf parts inside it like everyone else. 

Is that what this is?
https://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/workstations-z8/overview.html

I mean, I'm a Mac user through and through, but man if my livelihood counted on render times more than it does now, I'd probably be strongly considering biting the bullet and getting one of these to get my work done.



I'm optimistic that Apple is aware of these issues by now and did not go into this Mac Pro thing to half-ass it, but we'll see soon enough I guess.

Wow, who would have thought that a workstation from 2018 / 2019 would ever beat the 2013 Mac Pro...?!?

So, why has Apple taken so long to replace the Mac Pro...?

Some may say the Mac Pro was slated fade away into the distance, with the iMac Pro as its successor...

Many ask as to WHY it is taking so long, a mini-tower workstation with a few PCIe slots should be easy...

My idea of the backplane with daughtercards modular Mac Pro cube still stands, but backplanes & daughtercards have been done by Apple before...

But then when one thinks of the smaller chassis size and the TDPs of current CPUs/GPUs, it seems like it would be another thermal corner for Apple to paint itself into...

UNLESS...!!!

Unless it IS a small cube with a backplane & daughtercard system...

But imagine if there were daughtercards that all had the same thing on them, and the more you added (say, up to four daughtercards...?) the more powerful the system became...!?!

Let me introduce you to the new ARM-powered modular Mac Pro...!!!

Still the same SG Mac mini style PSU (same horizontal footprint, but the full height of the chassis), with all I/O to the lower portion of the rear panel (eight TB3 / USB-C ports, dual 10Gb Ethernet. & 3.5mm headphone jack), as well as the power input...

Each daughtercard has the following:

Four A13X Bionic APUs
64GB RAM
2TB SSD

As one adds a new daughtercard, the system integrates the cards resources into one large homogenized pool...

A fully loaded system would consist of sixteen ARM APUs, 256GB RAM, & 8TB SSD... 

The hardware engineering & (especially) the software (both for the homogenized pool of resources AND for the transition from x64 to ARM) would take a few years, I would figure... 

So yeah, we just may be looking at the first ARM Mac with the forthcoming modular Mac Pro...!?!

Discuss...! ;^p

Spotted at the October 2018 Mac Event that gave us the new Space Grey Mac mini...

There it is, a larger-than-life mock-up of the new modular Mac Pro...!



Even though this is not the mini-tower / tower that everyone wants, if Apple allows end users to easily add / change the CPU / RAM / GPU & add additional 2.5" SSDs for expanded storage, AND releases updates (looking at you, GPU module) on a regular schedule, it might work...

Look at the work done on the PSU in the new Space Grey Mac mini, now imagine that same horizontal footprint, but extended vertically, a larger PSU with more power...

I could see Apple using a vertical backplane (mounted at the front of the chassis) with five slots for vertical daughtercards; one for CPU / RAM / base GPU (Navi 12), one for storage (T2 & four M.2 NVMe slots, two prefilled & remaining modules initially available from Apple, until OWC steps in), one for base I/O (eight TB3 / USB-C ports, two 10Gb Ethernet ports, one 3.5mm headphone jack), two remaining slots are for GPUs /GPGPUs...

So basically you are going to have three slots filled from Apple, with you deciding the level of CPU / RAM / SSDs come pre-installed...

You can BTO up the CPU / RAM / storage & you can BTO add up to two Apple-sanctioned GPUs / GPGPUs...

I would imagine bottom intake / rear exhaust blower fans for the CPU & various GPUs...

It is Apple after all, why would they ever give us EXACTLY what we want...! ;^p

tht said:

Not that exciting of a rumor here. There’s a whole host of software improvements that need to be done, so really looking for to iOS 13.

Hardware wise, tough to come up with exciting new features for the form factor, the usual performance improvement excepted. I’d like to see 11.5” and 13.5” 5:4 aspect ratio displays, 2 TB3/USBC ports, and no camera bump for iPad Pros. It’s really the software that’ll make the form factor shine though.

I would go for a 13.5" iPad Pro; and if I can plug external storage into one TB3/USB-C port & a secondary independent monitor into the other, that would be great... Please! give us a thicker iPad Pro; could help alleviate any future Bendgate issues & the space can be used for a higher capacity battery... And an improved Keyboard Folio, with real backlit keys, & the ability to use the package in either laptop mode or in a tablet mode with the keyboard covered by the tablet, not exposed where your support hand is touching the keys, or an uneven fold between the tablet & the reversed keyboard (which itself could lend to more Bendgate issues)...

hentaiboy said:

Aren't we supposed to be voice and gesture computing by now?

What we have...



What we want...