Dodeca-core Apple Mac Pro coming next month Apple hasn't - contrary to expectations - updated the Mac Pro, but it did today promise to do so soon. The new version will sport one or two CPUs for a total of four, six, eight or 12 cores, all Intel 32nm Xeon workstation and - on the dual-processor rigs - server chips. Since they have HyperThreading on board, that makes for …
"""but only 32gb of ram?"""
Exactly - if it can do 6 core Xeons, then it should be running triple channel memory, which doesn't even allow for 32gb. I guess dual channel is still good enough for Apple? Seems like just about any 2 socket Xeon 56xx series box should support up to 96GB at least.
It's a shame Apple's desktop stuff lags so far behind the PC when it comes to gaming, even with the introduction of Steam for OSX. Put two ATI 5970s in there and you've probably got a rig capable of running all games at fully max'ed settings even on a 2560 x 1600 Apple Cinema display.
You can get a Bluray burner and reader for your mac. But I presume you're talking about the ability to view BD discs that are protected. If I'm not mistaken, that requires trusted computing to ensure that the decryption process isn't tampered with. OS X doesn't have that built in (and in my opinion, it's just as well as I prefer to remain in charge of my machine).
Apparently his Jobs-ness has decided that Blu-ray is dead already and will be super-ceded by 1080p digital download / streaming - so why bother now? Allegedly. I think I read that on Macrumours (here in fact: http://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/30/steve-jobs-suggests-blu-ray-not-coming-to-mac-anytime-soon/).
I am due a PC upgrade this year and am seriously considering a Mac Pro - though I would get a memory upgrade from Crucial and HDDs from anywhere else - Apple take the piss with their upgrade charges :(
I'm sure the first Mac Pro was $2499 for the base version and $2999 (if I remember) for the top of the range CPU. This time, on the other hand, the range is from $2499-$3499-$4999, which seems pretty steep.
And as for extra disk drives, asking for $550 for an extra 2GB drive seems pretty excessive, to put it mildly.
... as is USB 3.0. There aren't many USB 3 accessories which don't also offer eSATA connections, and you can buy an eSATA card for a Mac Pro for pennies today. Hell, you can buy an eSATA ExpressCard for a Macbook Pro for about the same price too.
Apple take a very minimalist approach to design. There's a saying among artists that the secret to good art is what you leave *out* and you see this approach in other fields, like sports cars, where even a basic CD player is often considered a luxury too far.
Microsoft (and, therefore, most of Apple's rivals), have an "all you can eat" approach, which is an engineer's approach. It's a very different mind-set, where everything including the kitchen sink is slathered on in an attempt to lure customers by sheer weight of features—never you mind how bastard hard they are to actually use, it's only the feature count that matters!
Neither USB 3 nor Blu-Ray have a massive user base, but if you want to add either technology to your Mac Pro, you're free to buy the kit. Apple won't stop you. (Also, Apple's iTunes and iDevice approach is clearly centred on *downloadable* content, so Blu-Ray is unlikely to appear in Apple's computers until Blu-Ray drive prices drop to the point where it no longer makes any sense to keep making DVD drives.)
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