WWDC: Say hi to the 64-bit Mac Pro
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Aug 7, 2006 at 2:38pm
As expected, Apple today unveiled the new Mac Pro, a quad Xeon, 64-bit desktop workstation, during CEO Steve Jobs’ keynote at the 2006 Worldwide Developer Conference. The replacement for the Power Mac G5 sports two dual-core Intel Xeon processors running up to 3GHz and a new system architecture that Apple says delivers up to twice the performance of the Power Mac G5 Quad.
The new Mac Pro features the new Dual-Core Intel Xeon 5100 series processor based on the Intel Core microarchitecture. The desktop features two dual-core Intel Xeon processors running up to 3GHz, each with 4MB of shared L2 cache and independent 1.33 GHz front-side buses. With 667 MHz DDR2 fully-buffered memory, the Mac Pro also boasts a 256-bit wide memory architecture.
“Apple has successfully completed the transition to using Intel processors in just seven months—210 days to be exact,” says Jobs. “And what better product to complete it with than the new Mac Pro, the workstation Mac users have been dreaming about.”
The Mac Pro features an all new, direct attach storage solution for cable free, snap-in installation of up to four 500GB Serial ATA hard drives for a total of 2TB of internal storage (the most ever on a Mac) and support for two optical drives to simultaneously read and/or write to CDs and DVDs. Every Mac Pro includes three full-length PCI Express expansion slots and one double-wide PCI Express graphics slot. And although the chassis looks pretty much the same as that of the Power Mac G5, the front panel of the Mac Pro includes a FireWire 800 port, a FireWire 400 port and two USB 2.0 ports with additional FireWire 800, FireWire 400 and three USB 2.0 ports on the back panel. The pro desktop also includes dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, optical digital input and output, analog audio input and output, and optional built-in support (nope, it’s still not standard) for AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR.
Every Mac Pro comes standard with the NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT with 256MB of video memory, providing built-in support for dual-displays and Apple’s 30-inch Cinema HD Display. The ATI Radeon X1900 XT and the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500, both with 512MB of video memory, are available as build to order options and provide built-in support for up to two 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Displays. The Quadro FX 4500 also includes a stereo 3D port to connect goggles for stereo-in-a-window applications. The Mac Pro supports up to four PCI Express graphics cards to drive up to eight displays at once.
The pro desktop comes with Mac OS X 10.4.7 Tiger. The base configuration starts at US$2,499 and includes: two 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors; 1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 fully-buffered ECC memory expandable up to 16GB; NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT with 256MB of GDDR2 SDRAM; 250GB Serial ATA (3Gb/s) hard drive running at 7200 rpm; a 16x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW); four PCI Express slots: one double-wide graphics slot and three full-length expansion slots; and ships with a Mighty Mouse and Apple Keyboard.
In addition to the standard configuration, the Mac Pro offers, according to Apple, more than 4.9 million build-to-order options including: two 2GHz or 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors; up to 16GB of 667 MHz DDR2 fully-buffered ECC memory; up to four 500GB Serial ATA hard drives running at 7200 rpm; up to two 16x SuperDrives with double-layer support; ATI Radeon X1900 XT and NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 graphics cards, both with 512MB of GDDR3 SDRAM; AirPort Extreme module, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR module; Apple USB Modem; Apple Wireless Keyboard and Apple wireless Mighty Mouse; Mac OS X Server Tiger; Apple Xsan; and Apple Fibre Channel PCI Express Card. Complete build-to-order options and pricing are available here.
Photo courtesy of the Apple web site.
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Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
