[Andrew Richards]

If that means losing the bulky optical drive, good riddance. I’d rather have room for more storage or more battery. But I don’t think it is in any way suggestive the MBP line is being killed of. The question named the Air specifically, so Cook answered about the Air specifically.

Best,
Andy

[Andrew Richards]

[Jeremy Garchow] “And don’t forget what an iPod looked like in 2003”

Or the “tablets” Jobs was rightfully scoffing at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Tablet_PC

Best,
Andy

[Andrew Richards]

Here’s why.

Best,
Andy

[Andrew Richards]

[Craig Seeman] “As to PPRo, as they move to include OpenCL support the differences may decrease . . . although even that might mean the user wants a bit more flexibility in choosing the GPU.”

CUDA had a significant head start as a proprietary technology, but OpenCL should see pretty rapid adoption and development. We are beginning to see that in the market now. OpenCL is sponsored by some rather important industry players, including NVIDIA, which chairs the OpenCL working group.

Best,
Andy

[Andrew Richards]

You can daisy chain. Put the monitor last unless it is Apple’s Thunderbolt Display. In that case order wouldn’t matter.

EDIT: I forgot the Intensity Extreme only has the single Thunderbolt port. I’m not aware of any hubs. Sorry.

Best,
Andy

[Andrew Richards]

[Chris Kenny] “I’m not sure we’re quite there yet, and in any event CPU isn’t the only compelling advantage of the Mac Pro — internal expansion (particularly PCIe slots) is also important. (Though that probably won’t be true if Intel’s plans to ramp 100 Gb/s Thunderbolt pan out.)”

That’s true, but I suspect Apple more than anyone has drunk the Thunderbolt Kool-aid and imagines slots are already obsolete today. If we actually get 100Gb Thunderbolt, then maybe for almost all practical purposes they are. But today? Hardly. So if we think about the USP of a Mac Pro, and we drop dual CPUs and slots (assuming an overly-optimistic Thunderbolt bias at Apple), there isn’t much USP left to separate it from an iMac.

[Chris Kenny] “When you can grade 4K in real-time on a laptop (probably within five years), how many people in our market will still care about owning a dual socket tower?”

If we’re talking about a five year timetable, then I’m in full agreement.

Best,
Andy

[Andrew Richards]

[Chris Kenny] “Although it’ll probably happen eventually. If Intel has a 12 core processor available in a couple of years, will Apple really still feel the need to make a dual processor (i.e. 24 core) machine? There’s a big price bump to go dual processor; at some point single CPU performance will be so high it won’t really make sense even for most of the Mac Pro’s demographic.”

You’ve just made the case to cancel the Mac Pro. If no one needs something more powerful (and necessarily more expensive) than a single processor, then the top end iMac is all anyone needs.

Isn’t the demographic for the Mac Pro the professional Mac user who really needs the most computing power they can reasonably stuff into a mass-market box?

For decades, we’ve been able to do things with lesser boxes that used to take bleeding edge rigs only a few years earlier. What makes 2012 the year that our expectations plateau?

Best,
Andy

[Andrew Richards]

[Chris Harlan] “So E3 would not be used?”

The big difference is E3 does not support dual sockets (dual CPUs). The predecessor to the E3, the 3000 series, was never used in a Mac Pro. Apple could use it, but it would mean the Mac Pro (or whatever) would be going down-market from where it has been thus far.

[Chris Harlan] “So we can go back to “Why aren’t they using Sandy Bridge?””

That’s the waiting game. HP will ship theirs next month. Probably other OEMs too. In 2010, it took Apple till July to refresh the Mac Pro, despite suitable 5000 series Xeons hitting the market that March.

Best,
Andy

[Andrew Richards]

[Chris Harlan] “Re: Ivy Bridge is a go. Officially.”

For continuity’s sake:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/335/32307

Best,
Andy

[Andrew Richards]

[Chris Harlan] “And, apparently, Ivy Bridge Xeons are supposed to ship in June.”

Those are the E3 series. Sandy Bridge E3 has been out for a year. The E5 series is what would go into a Mac Pro or any other dual CPU box. Those will be a while…

Best,
Andy