14 DAY TRIAL // The Mac Pro is a workstation computer manufactured by Apple Inc. Originally announced on August 7, 2006 at the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC), the system is known as the most powerful in Apple's line of desktop computers, boasting an impressive capacity for expansion.
Like the Mac mini, the Mac Pro hasn't seen any “love” in over a year, MacBlogz points out. While no hints were dropped at Macworld 2009 that any refreshing was going to occur, neither on the mini, nor on the Pro side (not even on the all-in-one front – iMac), the site believes a major overhaul of the Mac Pro is imminent.
“Apple will most likely make use of its new aluminum manufacturing,” the source of these eye-catching renderings believes. “A new Mac Pro could sport additional USB 2.0 inputs, a single FireWire 400 and multiple FireWire 800 ports, dual eSATA and HDMI inputs and also be able to support the new 24″ LED Cinema Displays with dual Mini DisplayPorts and MagSafe power,” the fictional specs list goes. “Two Dual-link DVI ports would remain on the machine for users of the older Apple Cinema Displays,” according to the concept.
The source also points out to recent evidence that the new eight-core Intel Nehalem class processors (set to be announced at next month’s International Solid-State Circuits Conference) as highly probable to make it into a next-gen Mac Pro. Noting that Intel will show off an “eight-core, 16-thread Xeon processor manufactured with a 45-nanometer process,” Intel would pretty much enable Apple to release a whole new computer.
Then, of course, there's the design. Whatever Apple plans for a new Mac Pro, it will most certainly include the sleek aluminum design we've become accustomed to. However, this time, Apple may need to “machine” that case out of blocks of aluminum, should those slot loading drives materialize, along with the “more refined laser cut micro-perforated face.” The black Apple logo should also make its way onto the new Pro, considering that pretty much every Apple product bearing an aluminum enclosure has it.
Obviously, it's doable. So, how close do you think these concepts are to Apple's possible plans with the powerful Mac Pro?