New Mac Pro, Upcoming Super-Powered Apple Computer, To Be Assembled In U.S.

[onehandle]

Source: Huffington Post

While announcing a radically redesigned version of the Mac Pro, Apple's Phil Schiller couldn't help but boast a bit. "Can't innovate any more, my ass," Phil Schiller, the company's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said on stage in San Francisco at its Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday.

A updated version to Apple's desktop computer, which will be available later this year, will be assembled in the United States, Schiller said, and it boasts powerful specs. The Verge notes it will have a cylindrical shape, 12-core Intel Xeon CPU, and support for 4k displays, and it will be "designed to last for '(another) 10 years.'"

"In short, it is a powerhouse," TechCrunch's John Biggs wrote, summing up the teased specs.

Apple CEO Tim Cook made a point of announcing Apple's intention of assembling certain lines of Macs in America. "[W]e have a responsibility to create jobs," he told Bloomberg Businessweek in December. "I don’t think we have a responsibility to create a certain kind of job, but I think we do have a responsibility to create jobs."


Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/10/new-mac-pro-apple-computer_n_3416662.html

---

[LiberalArkie]

1. I am already drooling

[sakabatou]

2. Now if only they could take that and make it a laptop

[alfredo]

15. Give them a few years.

[BuddhaGirl]

3. Wow - how big of them!

"Apple CEO Tim Cook made a point of announcing Apple's intention of assembling certain lines of Macs in America. "e have a responsibility to create jobs," he told Bloomberg Businessweek in December. "I don’t think we have a responsibility to create a certain kind of job, but I think we do have a responsibility to create jobs."

They also have a responsibility to PAY TAXES!

iCheats!

[alfredo]

7. They pay millions in state and local taxes. It's federal taxes where they take advantage of the

loopholes in the law. I think Cupertino will see around $6 million in additional tax revenue related to the new Apple headquarters.


My state will see some jobs from the new Pro Mac.

[we can do it]

21. Spare me the hypocrisy, what computer do you use and where is it built?

[cliffordu]

25. That's fine, kiddo. Wait until you need to edit a fucking movie or

run 32 channels of LOGIC with KONTAKT virtual instrument plugins in real time.

Fuck a bunch of taxes, I want three more BOSENDORFER grands.

[Ash_F]

4. The components(i.e. - real paying jobs ) will still be built in other countries though.

Better than nothing I guess. The case design is neat. I wonder what the pros are.

[alfredo]

5. They'd need a local supply chain.

[Ash_F]

8. For transportation, yes.

But the chips and electronics, where most of the value is contained, will still be outsourced to Asian countries.

Again, it is better than nothing, but this country does not have much ability to make advanced electronics. It would be good for our long term economic viability to invest in being able to make these high-value goods.

[alfredo]

12. That's one reason I am withholding praise or condemnation right now. It will take a long time to

move, chip making.

One thing people may no know, Apple has been innovating manufacturing and materials. They have been very good at working with aluminum. The pro in use now is a beautiful hunk of metal, and I have no doubt the new Mac Pro thermos will be beautiful.

[rightsideout]

27. That looks like my Mac Pro

I love it. I still have my old G4 too.

[alfredo]

29. The case is a beautiful piece of industrial art, The inner workings are beautiful too.

[alfredo]

9. The design works like a chimney. Also the computer will move work between chips to

regulate heat. They have a history of fan-less designs. The original iMacs and the Cube were early attempts at heat dissipation design. You could put the cube asleep by putting your hand over the top vent. The cube was beautiful, but they had problems with the clear lexan cracking. That, and the radical design killed that model.



Doing away with the fan is a boon for sound engineers.

[Ash_F]

10. Interesting. I just read this will have a fan though.

One big fan, right up the middle.

[alfredo]

13. From the Apple site

You were right. One big assed fan. http://www.apple.com/mac-pro/ Great animation too.

"The new Mac Pro packs an unprecedented amount of power in an unthinkable amount of space. A big reason we were able to do that is the ingenious unified thermal core. Rather than using multiple heat sinks and fans to cool the processor and graphics cards, we built everything around a single piece of extruded aluminum designed to maximize airflow as well as thermal capacity. It works by conducting heat away from the CPU and GPUs and distributing that heat uniformly across the core. That way, if one processor isn’t working as hard as the others, the extra thermal capacity can be shared efficiently among them. No computer has been built this way before. And yet it makes so much sense, it’s now hard to imagine building one any other way."


"An incredible amount of innovation went into designing a fan system capable of cooling such a high-performance device. Instead of adding extra fans, we engineered a single, larger fan that pulls air upward through a bottom vent. As air passes vertically through the center of the device, it absorbs heat and carries it out the top. It’s simple and elegant — and also astonishingly quiet. To achieve that, we had to consider every detail: the number of blades, the size of the blades, the spacing of the blades, and even the shape of the blades. By minimizing air resistance throughout the system, we were able to design a fan with backward-curved impeller blades that runs at fewer revolutions per minute, draws air more efficiently as it spins, and creates considerably less noise."

[PSPS]

6. "Assembled in" isn't the same as "Made in."

[Psephos]

30. How early 20th Century of you.

Tech, and especially consumer tech, industries use global supply chains. There are no single-country solutions.

The components needed for a computer like this are literally not made in the US. "Made" in the US is impossible for the Mac Pro.

Components are commodities, made by dirty, low-profit, immensely competitive industries, concentrated in Asia, where that doesn't matter. The engineering, design, and assembly are all inherently higher-value parts of the process, and therefore support higher wages than the commodity makers can.

[Jesus Malverde]

11. Great day to announce storing your passwords in the "Cloud". wooo hoo!...nt

[Xithras]

14. So they innovated...a round case?

Yeah, it's a powerhouse, but you can order a Linux powered HP Z820 today with a 16 Core Xeon processor and the same dual Firepro GPU setup. The only really new thing I'm seeing is the Thunderbolt 2 port (an Intel invention), but Thunderbolt has largely been ignored by the accessory makers in favor of the much-cheaper-to-license USB 3.0. I'm not intending to bash Apple (I like my current Mac Pro and am VERY happy to hear that the line hasn't been abandoned), but other than the round case, I'm not seeing anything that you can't already get in other high end workstations from other vendors.

It's good to see that the line is being refreshed, and that Apple is still committed to it, but I don't know that I'd really call this innovation. It's more of a "modernization" of a dated hardware line that many thought would be abandoned.

[onehandle]

16. It's 1/8th the size of the old Mac Pros.

I think the modernization of modularization is one reason it's taken so long.

[Xithras]

18. I can see that...

...but in all honesty, I'm not in love with it. I mean, I can appreciate the technical feat involved in cramming that much computer into such a small space (I'm currently typing this on a nearly-as-powerful 8 core Xeon Dell Precision T7600 that's the size of a large suitcase), but my current aluminum Mac Pro is one of the most elegant (dare I say beautiful?) computers I've ever owned. This new design looks vaguely like the air purifier in the corner of my living room. It's neat, but not striking in the same way the old one was.

[onehandle]

19. I've been tired of lugging those big things around work for a while.

But then again, my Quadra 950 was bigger and didn't have handles. Ugh.



Apple throws out the rulebook for its unique next-gen Mac Pro

http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/06/10/apple-throws-out-the-rulebook-for-its-unique-next-gen-mac-pro



---

[Ash_F]

17. The round case could have enough pros to become standard.

Then it would be an innovation. I like the single fan design too, as my comp has 5. I wonder if the GPUs are fan-less too.

[alfredo]

26. It's pretty neat that the case and core is impact extruded. One

It makes for a seamless case.

[jmowreader]

20. I want.

Hopefully they've tested it to be sure cats can't sleep on top of it...since this thing is shaped like a jet engine standing on end and all the exhaust air comes out the top, a cat balanced on top of it would probably melt it.

And anyone who says a cat couldn't sleep on this thing never owned a cat - I had one who slept on top of the door.

[alfredo]

23. The Apple Cube automatically went to sleep if the exhaust vent was blocked.

[alfredo]

22. The new Pro Mac looks like Apple's Shanghai store

[xtraxritical]

24. Meh, Apple - less for lot's more $.

[cliffordu]

28. Until you get through paying for your fucking anti-virus patches.

Then a Mac is priceless.

Linux or Mac.

The rest are posers and petri dishes for script kiddies.

[xtraxritical]

31. I use MS Security Essentials, it's free and I have no issues with viruses.

MS has a large interest in keeping Windows PC's secure and they do a good job.

[cliffordu]

32. It's about time.

[xtraxritical]

34. It's been offered for years...

[SeattleVet]

33. Every Mac I've owned served well for at least 10 years.

Except for one, which had a motherboard problem and failed to boot after only 7 or 8 years.

I'm pretty happy if I only have to buy a new system every decade or so.