First Looks: Design Factors
The new Mac Pro mixes a sleek design with sensible efficiency. Some have said it looks more fit to be a vase for flowers or an ultra-high tech rubbish bin, but the aesthetic appeal of the polished black cylindrical exterior is undeniable to many. The design is more than just for looks, however, and actually is conducive to much more effective cooling and air circulation than the traditional cube-like structure of computer cases. But that's just the outside, so let's consider what's going on under the hood.
Internal Configuration
The new Pro is definitely a computing powerhouse, but the extent of its capabilities is more aptly described in terms of its hardware potential. On a full expansion, this performance machine allows for up to twelve cores of processing power, providing a dream-scape for multithreading application potential. Apple is currently advertising processing potential double to that of its current pro in terms of floating point performance. Floating point performance factors is measured in FLOPS, and is comparable to another processing standard measurement, instructions per second. The raw processing power is backed by additional hardware considerations like impressive, ultra fast PCIe storage and I/O exchanges. The graphic potential utilizes two AMD FirePro graphic processing units, which in turn depend on a full six gigabytes of dedicated video-memory for intensive graphic processing applications. This allows for almost seven teraflops of computing potential, more than the both the PS4 and Xbox One's graphic potential combined.
Potential Pitfalls
Apple is renowned for the high quality of their products, but every successive launch of new performance workstations has been plagued by a few problems. For starters, a fully configured Mac Pro will still only have four USB ports. That's certainly a problem, especially in workstation applications where a high degree of connectivity is in constant demand. Sure, the Thunderbird transfer speed is blazing fast, but the Pro is limited by the relatively small quantity I/O. Additionally, this computer lacks an optical drive, no doubt to push towards cloud and flash-based solutions over more traditional optical media. What happens if you need optical media? Looks like you'll be using an external disk reader, which can effectively add to the overall cost of the product. That brings us to the last point of contention: price. Apple is rather quiet about the new Mac Pro in terms of price, but judging from prior releases we can expect its potential configurations to range between $2,700 and $4,000. That's steep, even for a workstation, but the unit does promise game-changing performance. The Pro is scheduled for release fall of this year, which will allow a more in-depth analysis of the system. Until then, we'll have to wait for the grand unveiling.
