In various threads around here speculations have been flying about how a MacPro 2013 could look like.
Some people prefer to believe in an upgrade of the main components (like the CPU, memory and storage/drives) continuing to reside inside one big box similar (if not identical) to today's Mac Pro casing.
Others (like myself) rather favor a more radical approach with a modular setup that has the components (like CPU, memory etc.) distributed over individual "boxes" which communicate over highspeed connections.
The latter also would allow better to go for more and perhaps even diverse processors within one "machine" (like multiple ARM cores or a main CPU for heavy lifting combined with cheap and energy-efficient CPU's - perhaps ARM - for the idling phases of computing).
Supporters of the former scenario would base their argumentation on the product portfolio of Intel, being the most probable component supplier for a workstation-type machine like the Mac Pro.
It seems, however, that Intel themselves have something to offer which would support the second scenario mentioned above:
[GERMAN news] / [ENGLISH Translation]
Intel claims to have developed the technology for 20 years and have it ready for production since 2 years now. This includes internal communication with 100GBit/s and low latency over fiber, which would invalidate one of the main arguments against a modularization such as drafted above.
Perhaps it wasn't really ready for prime time 2 years ago (despite Intel's claims) and therefore the overhaul of the MacPro was delayed longer than originally planned. But if this would really go into a next Mac Pro iteration i believe it would allow for some interesting setups.
/discuss
Some people prefer to believe in an upgrade of the main components (like the CPU, memory and storage/drives) continuing to reside inside one big box similar (if not identical) to today's Mac Pro casing.
Others (like myself) rather favor a more radical approach with a modular setup that has the components (like CPU, memory etc.) distributed over individual "boxes" which communicate over highspeed connections.
The latter also would allow better to go for more and perhaps even diverse processors within one "machine" (like multiple ARM cores or a main CPU for heavy lifting combined with cheap and energy-efficient CPU's - perhaps ARM - for the idling phases of computing).
Supporters of the former scenario would base their argumentation on the product portfolio of Intel, being the most probable component supplier for a workstation-type machine like the Mac Pro.
It seems, however, that Intel themselves have something to offer which would support the second scenario mentioned above:
[GERMAN news] / [ENGLISH Translation]
Intel claims to have developed the technology for 20 years and have it ready for production since 2 years now. This includes internal communication with 100GBit/s and low latency over fiber, which would invalidate one of the main arguments against a modularization such as drafted above.
Perhaps it wasn't really ready for prime time 2 years ago (despite Intel's claims) and therefore the overhaul of the MacPro was delayed longer than originally planned. But if this would really go into a next Mac Pro iteration i believe it would allow for some interesting setups.
/discuss