“The first ‘leak’ for the modular Mac Pro has surfaced in the form of a supposed internal Apple document for the device, alleged evidence for the highly-anticipated Mac that has many questionable elements making it very hard to believe is genuine at all,” Malcolm Owen reports for AppleInsider.
“In an image posted to Imgur, an internal slide from a presentation for the ‘Mac Pro 7.1’ has seemingly been photographed on a display and then shared,” Owen reports. “The document is dated as last modified on ‘7 November 2018,’ with it also bearing a notification it is for ‘Apple Internal’ usage, the Apple logo in one quarter, and the author’s name conveniently blurred out.”
“The supposed design is for a relatively square Mac Pro measuring 7.7 inches wide, 11.55 inches tall, and 11.55 inches long, with rounded vertical edges,” Owen reports. “Also on the sheet is a list of specifications, which contains a number of relatively odd elements that strongly suggest the image isn’t genuine at all.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As Owen mentions, the DDR5 RAM, PCIe 4, and “Thunderbolt 4” call the veracity of this “leak” into question due to the immaturity of each item (unannounced, in the case of “Thunderbolt 4”). It’s also not very “modular” looking.
Nvidia? Thought we were using the Radeon Vegas now?
I call bullshit…
Fake Cube 2.0
Maybe we can stack them like Legos … MODULAR
The basis for Owen’s skepticism is not clear.
I predict that Not Quite Marketing Genius Schiller this year will attempt to show Apple innovation by revealing the first computer with something innovative in hardware that no other company has.
What could that be?
— ARM it will not be because too many reasons to list here, notwithstanding the incessary ARM desires of the vocal minority.
— Black is the pro color for Apple, so colors are out.
— Affordable pricing, well that’s not what Apple stands for at all.
How can Apple show it still has a few hardware engineers in the basement?
— Well a new connector and more dongles, OF COURSE!!!!
Okay, just kidding. Apple seems to have wedded itself to USC-C for all things, for better or worse. Sorry about your connector retention and wear everyone.
But everyone claiming that TB4 can’t possibly exist are fooling themselves. Think about it, Apple needs something to brag about. TB3 was released in 2015 — 4 years ago, and Apple trickled USB-C laptops out by 2016, other companies easily matching or beating Apple’s introduction of the fast interface but wisely deciding to keep a legacy USB-A port around a while as the accessories market caught up. Apple got no kudos for their trouble.
Now in 2019 It’s almost certain Apple worked with Intel to be the place to reveal the next big thing. I bet that Phil will invite Intel to the stage to chat about a new chipset and how the new TB4 will incorporate PCI 4. Phil might neglect to mention that PCI 4 has been around a while.
A next generation of RAM could also be available and would of course be the excuse to Apple to impose its asinine RAM pricing on its loyal customers. But I will say that if performance is commensurate with price, then no pro will argue.
Predictably, Apple will leverage its T2 chipset to lock out hackintoshers and restrict hardware upgrades so that those too are only the high-markup selections that Apple deems you are allowed to use.
Other than that, though, what’s not to like? It’s the physical workstation that could and should have been released in 2013, with next generation 2019 hardware that, yes, a flagship product has to offer. I can’t wait for WWDC to see it in the flesh.
If Apple was smart, they’d follow up the Mac Pro with “one more thing”, a cheaper consumer tower with Intel Core chips and modest internal expansion.
’bout damn time Apple gave Mac users a glimmer of hope for the future.
Not a bad rundown.
But, you forgot to mention a timeline. My optimistic timeline is
Preview with flashy video and graphics at WWDC 2019.
Formally announce on 26 November 2019.
Early orders starting 13 December 2019.
Ship in very limited quantities and a few (not all) configurations by Christmas 2019
Ship in full quantities and all configurations by 31 March 2020.
Also, if we dream, the systems will support both DRAM and Xpoint (Optane) memory.
I’m still not convinced they will say anything at WWDC. I would lean towards a Sept introduction with more details to be provided by WWDC 2020, and then ship late 2020/early 2021. Because ANY pro that’s STILL waiting for Apple to do release a modular pro machine WILL wait another year or two. It’s a sad fact.
Thunderbolt is just becoming USB4. There will be no “Thunderbolt 4”. Just USB (4).
I’m still not convinced it isn’t just vapor altogether, I really believe Apple were hoping the iMac and iPad pro would suffice. They don’t, and they won’t . And an aside, no, that is NOT ‘the full Photoshop on iPad!’, Adobe.
This is silly.
More like a stereo. A cpu box, several 100gigabit connections. A graphic card box with video out and more 100gigabit connections. SSDs in a box of its own like the cpu box, graphics boxes. Maybe even a sound box. Easily doable.
Ok yes optical fiber for the connections and you know that’s doable. Now that desires another apple only rediculous price 7999 starting. With an i3 processor. LOL
LOL
Yes it would be nice to have Tb connections. You can see adding as many cpu and graphics boxes as you can afford. Sweet hey.
I love the design I hope that’s the way Apple go’s (If this is real or not) Many people loved the original tower but the image seems a bit odd as there is no air flow vents and for a Pro machine thats not right?
Over all I’m just happy right now to see something worth getting excited about regarding Apple.
I personally can not wait to put my 6k (possibly more but hopefully not too much more ) toward a real Apple Pro Power station! with the ability to save for upgrades 😉
I have been waiting for far too long with a restrictive Pro Mac system that slows my work flow down and I blame Apple for leaving power users to use very old or restrictively designed hardware.
I just want to get on with my passion for music without having to freeze files and bounce tracks etc etc all of which is nothing to do with being an music artist and my wasted time has been due totally to the restricting current “Pro Macs” vs what it should be.
Roll on WWDC
Can anyone say NeXT box 🙂 the more they design facy stuff the more they go back to how things should have been in the first place. At least that is what jumps out at me 🙂