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Only Gigabit Ethernet and more
Curious why 10GigE wasn’t implemented. Companies like SmallTree make great SANs that utilize 10GigE….I would have connected 6 of the new MacPros to a nice 24 TB SAN via 10GigE and it would have rocked.
With that many Thunderbolt ports, companies are going to have to retool their peripherals for Thunderbolt. Can you network with thunderbolt? In other words, connect 6 MacPros via Thunderbolt to a RAID Thunderbolt server box and have it negotiate the demand?
With the lack of PCI, I can see AJA making a simple Thunderbolt box with a Kona card built in (make it a cylinder?) and connect the breakout box cable to our existing Kona breakout boxes…no expansion box needed…sort of.
We currently have an internal projects drive and two more drives in a RAID config all inside the MacPro. Hooking up a separate projects drive plus a RAID via thunderbolt externally to all the MacPros is going to be clunky. Going to have to rethink this a bit, and see how the 3rd party guys adapt to this configuration.
And you know the MacPro v2 will have Thunderbolt 3 built in…and backward compatible. Early adopters beware…
Not to mention you’ll be buying plenty of $20 adapters to plug in your firewire 800 drives. As a matter of fact, firewire 800 drives will be selling for pennies on the dollar on ebay as we all go USB3 or straight Thunderbolt. Look for simple Thunderbolt enclosures for all our firewire drives.
Sounds like I’m going to be buying a LOT more than just 6 new MacPros. Sort of a complete retooling of my current facility setup.
Oh, and since I have all my MacPros in a server room, how long a cable can I run to send 4K video to a monitor? 70 feet? Because I have 70 feet of VGA and 50 feet of DVI cables running thru the walls. And they work great. More adapters…Apple Mini display to DVI and VGA. A bunch of them. I’m going to have a drawer of old monitor adapters laying around real quick. It will be an ebay explosion!
Lots to consider folks.
Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media Inc.
Video Production, Post, Studio Sound Stage
Founder/President/Editor/Designer/Animator
https://www.tiltmedia.com -
1 Reply
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[Rich Rubasch] “Curious why 10GigE wasn’t implemented. Companies like SmallTree make great SANs that utilize 10GigE….I would have connected 6 of the new MacPros to a nice 24 TB SAN via 10GigE and it would have rocked. “
I’m very sad about this too. I was really hoping the Intel X540 chipset would find its way in there as standard. Would have really obviated the need to hang several things off the TB ports, including Fibre Channel stuff since FCoE and other converged networking is supported on that chipset. Phooey. We don’t know what NIC is in this new Mac Pro, but maybe it will support bonding.
[Rich Rubasch] “With that many Thunderbolt ports, companies are going to have to retool their peripherals for Thunderbolt.”
Yeah, but that is nothing new. This is two year old tech approaching rev 2 later this year.
[Rich Rubasch] “Can you network with thunderbolt?”
If you hang a NIC off it, yes. Apple sells one for pretty cheap. Think of Thunderbolt as just an external PCIe cable roughly equivalent to an x4 slot.
[Rich Rubasch] “In other words, connect 6 MacPros via Thunderbolt to a RAID Thunderbolt server box and have it negotiate the demand? “
No. Thunderbolt is not a fabric thing, it is strictly a direct-attached thing.
[Rich Rubasch] “With the lack of PCI, I can see AJA making a simple Thunderbolt box with a Kona card built in (make it a cylinder?) and connect the breakout box cable to our existing Kona breakout boxes…no expansion box needed…sort of.”
AJA jas had Thunderbolt I/O boxes since NAB 2012, as does BMD and others.
[Rich Rubasch] “We currently have an internal projects drive and two more drives in a RAID config all inside the MacPro. Hooking up a separate projects drive plus a RAID via thunderbolt externally to all the MacPros is going to be clunky. Going to have to rethink this a bit, and see how the 3rd party guys adapt to this configuration. “
Mass storage on this new Mac Pro will all have to take the form of externally powered and cooled boxes like the Promise Pegasus. A drawback to the new design to be sure.
[Rich Rubasch] “Oh, and since I have all my MacPros in a server room, how long a cable can I run to send 4K video to a monitor? 70 feet? Because I have 70 feet of VGA and 50 feet of DVI cables running thru the walls. And they work great. More adapters…Apple Mini display to DVI and VGA. A bunch of them. I’m going to have a drawer of old monitor adapters laying around real quick. It will be an ebay explosion!”
VGA and DVI will not support 4K. Not even dual-link DVI or DisplayPort 1.2 (the kind on all of today’s Macs) can push that many pixels. If you want long run 4K you are looking at some active conversion boxes and a lot of cable. Or you can just keep right on keeping on with 1920×1200.
Best,
Andy
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