We also think that AMD will provide multiple levels of dual FirePro graphics, not just the highest end model (W9000). This will explain the way Apple hopes to scale down prices so there will not be such a tremendous gap between iMac and Mac Pro.

We also think that AMD will provide multiple levels of dual FirePro graphics, not just the highest end model (W9000). This will explain the way Apple hopes to scale down prices so there will not be such a tremendous gap between iMac and Mac Pro.

These are great comments. I think you are correct. I think Apple does envision a multi-unit compute future and I also believe part of that is iCloud as a “compute unit” in this picture. Some CAD/BIM/3D programs are aggressively pursuing GPU and multi-core processing techniques to accelerate computation.

These are great comments. I think you are correct. I think Apple does envision a multi-unit compute future and I also believe part of that is iCloud as a “compute unit” in this picture. Some CAD/BIM/3D programs are aggressively pursuing GPU and multi-core processing techniques to accelerate computation.

The new Mac Pro seems to be an amazing Masterpiece in archiving the most computingpower out of the smallest and smartest machine. The price seems to be a limitation to a narrow user-scenario, which could only be extented by expensive Thunderbold-hardware, which might also be part of the strategy.

I am just wondering if Apple uses these Mac Pros themselves in their serverfarms and if so how the put them together in a rack ?

The new Mac Pro seems to be an amazing Masterpiece in archiving the most computingpower out of the smallest and smartest machine. The price seems to be a limitation to a narrow user-scenario, which could only be extented by expensive Thunderbold-hardware, which might also be part of the strategy.

I am just wondering if Apple uses these Mac Pros themselves in their serverfarms and if so how the put them together in a rack ?

But I am still wondering, if 4 slots for RAM are enough if the max. size of the DIMMs is limited by 8GB. This would mean only 32 GB RAM. 64bit could handle way more. And compared to the graphicspower 32GB RAM seems to be not very much, eventough the speed to transfer data from RAM to SSD has been increased. Or am I just wrong about the max RAM size ?

But I am still wondering, if 4 slots for RAM are enough if the max. size of the DIMMs is limited by 8GB. This would mean only 32 GB RAM. 64bit could handle way more. And compared to the graphicspower 32GB RAM seems to be not very much, eventough the speed to transfer data from RAM to SSD has been increased. Or am I just wrong about the max RAM size ?

These are very good observations. Apple is very interested in advancing OpenCL. In the recent past generations it seemed Nvidia was ahead of AMD in GPU compute while AMD was ahead in gaming technologies, but AMD with its nex-gen Tahiti architecture has made great advances and Apple is keen on taking advantage of these. It’s important to note that Adobe too has embraced OpenCL in its new Mercury Engine in CS6 despite the popularity of plugins that are CUDA based.

I had an interesting phone chat this AM with my graphics engineering contacts about the new box and will share more very soon. There is a lot to talk about and most of the press since the introduction is focusing on the wrong things.

These are very good observations. Apple is very interested in advancing OpenCL. In the recent past generations it seemed Nvidia was ahead of AMD in GPU compute while AMD was ahead in gaming technologies, but AMD with its nex-gen Tahiti architecture has made great advances and Apple is keen on taking advantage of these. It’s important to note that Adobe too has embraced OpenCL in its new Mercury Engine in CS6 despite the popularity of plugins that are CUDA based.

I had an interesting phone chat this AM with my graphics engineering contacts about the new box and will share more very soon. There is a lot to talk about and most of the press since the introduction is focusing on the wrong things.

I think the Mac Pro is an another transition step.
It seems to be a candy for developers to be persuaded to make more use of LLVM and OpenCL, as it marks a first step away from “CPU-only” Workstations towards “multi-unit-computing” like in CPU+FPU-times.
It seems that GPUs are way more powerful for what Apple has in mind for the future of computing and softwardevelopment.
If so, we might one day see computer with many different kinds of computing-units or several devices might be plugged together to one computer without any specific software.
I think this development is deeply founded in Steve. P. Jobs vision of Softwaredevelopment.
So from this point of view they are going in the right direction.

On the otherhand the success of this direction relies a lot on softwaredevelopers to follow that direction. Which means they need to do smarter programming, I guess.
I am not sure if this is the direction the CAD-Software is going.
I am even don’t know if there CAD-cores are able to go that direction. Hopefully they are able or a new player will appear.

For the moment it is strange to see a workstation with just one CPU, even if it is a Xeon with 12 cores (maybe just 6 physical) and just 4 RAM slots, for DIMMs that seem to have a max. capacity of 8GB per DIMM.
The fact that everything else, that needs to be customized has to be external might be acceptable if third party vendors will come up with anything suitable, which might be hard with a cylindric shape.

Excuse me for my orthography, but I hope you got the point.

I think the Mac Pro is an another transition step.
It seems to be a candy for developers to be persuaded to make more use of LLVM and OpenCL, as it marks a first step away from “CPU-only” Workstations towards “multi-unit-computing” like in CPU+FPU-times.
It seems that GPUs are way more powerful for what Apple has in mind for the future of computing and softwardevelopment.
If so, we might one day see computer with many different kinds of computing-units or several devices might be plugged together to one computer without any specific software.
I think this development is deeply founded in Steve. P. Jobs vision of Softwaredevelopment.
So from this point of view they are going in the right direction.

On the otherhand the success of this direction relies a lot on softwaredevelopers to follow that direction. Which means they need to do smarter programming, I guess.
I am not sure if this is the direction the CAD-Software is going.
I am even don’t know if there CAD-cores are able to go that direction. Hopefully they are able or a new player will appear.

For the moment it is strange to see a workstation with just one CPU, even if it is a Xeon with 12 cores (maybe just 6 physical) and just 4 RAM slots, for DIMMs that seem to have a max. capacity of 8GB per DIMM.
The fact that everything else, that needs to be customized has to be external might be acceptable if third party vendors will come up with anything suitable, which might be hard with a cylindric shape.

Excuse me for my orthography, but I hope you got the point.