So like most Mac Pro users Iʼm tired of waiting for Apple to release a new machine. Maybe theyʼre not certain exactly what the Pro user wants or needs, maybe they donʼt care any more. Iʼve decided to put down on paper what Iʼd like to see from them, and Iʼll

even provide some fake images of what it might look like. Iʼm sure Johnny can do a better job rounding the corners and making it “purdy”.

First, I donʼt need a tower enclosure, its too large for most of todayʼs machines and I believe the problems can be solved without the need for a monstrous cabinet. After all we desire power not size. So lets begin with a smaller desktop box, and letʼs design it so we can add too it for ... say 3 - 4 years before another new one comes out.

How about a box that could sit on the desktop or be placed elsewhere. Yes Iʼll show my age here, perhaps about the size of a the old Mac IIci (one of my personal favorite Macintoshes). But we can still have the brushed aluminum look of todays machines if Johnny seeʼs fit.

Next Iʼd like to see a full cadre of ports on BOTH the front and the back of the unit. They donʼt all have to be isolated on their own buss, many can share the same buss, but I would like the plugs in both places as some devices need rear access and some need plugging into the front. Letʼs start with the new USB3 ports and lets have 8 ports, then 2 thunderbolt ports in the front and 4 in the rear, and yes you still need to support Firewire for at least one more round, let have about 4 ports in front and 4 in back. Since this is a pro machine how about some compact flash readers, (2), SDHC card readers (3) and a few micro SDHC readers (3) , and these can all be on the front as that is where they will

New MacPro Desired Specs

be used. These are for my collection of digital cameras. (By the way please make them readable at USB3 speed or faster ... thanks!) Yes we still need the microphone, speaker, ethernet (wired and wireless), blue tooth etc.

Now letʼs turn our attention to the inside of this new machine. I would like to suggest something similar to your old “door” that you gave us on the old Power Macs. A way to easily get at the hard disk drives in the machine. So how about a “trapdoor” that opens to reveal 4 internal drive slots. (Sort of under the hood.) These slots should be wired to handle a variety of different drive configurations.

The drive receptacles could be hinged to make insertion or removal easy. If the Apple logo on the top were made of screen and the entire drive bay floor made of screen then there would be excellent air flow through the drive bay. (Probably from one or more fans below ... I know fans are a bad word at Apple.) But we need to keep them cool anyway.

While weʼre at it, I would like there to be a “toaster” type adapter that could take two of the SSD style drive and add them in tandem to a single drive slot. Iʼll call this level of the computer the “flight bay”.

Now if we close the lid and latch it, we can open the machine into level two of itʼs interior. We have arrived at the new power interior of the machine. Here we find 6 slots for adding those graphic cards, fiberoptic controllers, additional raid drive controllers, or whatever the power user desires. (represented by the blue bars in the image.) Then how about 4 CPU card slots what can each handle 4 dual core

New MacPro Desired Specs

processors. (Gray color in the image.) Thatʼs a possible total of 32 processors that could be added over time. Next a stationary memory card on the wall that has slots for 12 RAM memory sticks, AND a set of stand-offs that provides room to add another daughter card with 12 more stick slots. (Brown in the image with red stand offs.)

FInally Iʼll give you about 30-40% of the remaining space for a power supply and fans to bring in air from the outside and push it over the components and then up through the “flight deck” and out the top.

Now for a crazy idea, how about a rotating bottom plane that allow the user to decide if the connections are front and back or side to side. It only needs to move 90º to set the position, and help to control the cables. Power users are more forgiving of cable mess as we tend to live in a less than totally organized environment anyway. We like to try new things out and set them and take them down over and over. Access is better than “pretty” sometimes.

I guess we could even use use an iMac to drive the thing. How about a thunderbolt connection between this machine (it becomes a satellite) and an iMac to provide the front end processing. Then this power Mac could be the horse power to drive the rendering needed for video, animation, CAD, scientific, engineering, etc.

New MacPro Desired Specs

Start us up with a single CPU card model with RAM, and a choice of video cards. Then, as they become available create and provide add-on CPU cards with more processors as Intel releases them. This likely means making the system 128 bit wide rather than just 64 bit wide (at least for 2 CPU slots and the memory banks.)

If you provided this type of box, then the system could grow for several years without a major engineering upgrade. You might be able to produce USB4, Firewire Supreme (whatever), or other cards to keep the system up to date, and still manage an obscene profit to fuel your R&D ( which in the pro PC arena had been lacking lately.)

Iʼve owned three MacPros thus far, so get busy Iʼm ready for something new ... but a bit more exciting then another “CPU” speed bump!

New MacPro Desired Specs