CPU Stepping in 2010 Mac Pro

[100Years]

I know the 2010 Mac Pro machines support B1 stepping Xeons, but I was wondering if that was it? Would they support A0 stepping Xeons or D0 stepping Xeons as well?

 

[CaptainChunk]

I know the 2010 Mac Pro machines support B1 stepping Xeons, but I was wondering if that was it? Would they support A0 stepping Xeons or D0 stepping Xeons as well?

D0 stepping, yes (for 3500/5500 series). In fact, the 2010 SP quad-core models both use D0 stepping CPUs from the 3500 "Bloomfield" series (W3530 and W3565).

But A0 stepping Xeons haven't been made since prior to Core architecture. Not sure where you got that one from.

 

[100Years]

Thanks for the info.

As for the A0 stepping:

I had been browsing through the EVGA forums, and one of the threads had folks discussing loading an SR-2 motherboard with dual A0 stepping X5650 Xeon hex-core chips.

 

[nanofrog]

Too lazy to look ATM, but they're almost certainly Engineering Samples.

 

[100Years]

Yes, they were ES.

 

[CaptainChunk]

As for the A0 stepping:

I had been browsing through the EVGA forums, and one of the threads had folks discussing loading an SR-2 motherboard with dual A0 stepping X5650 Xeon hex-core chips.

Too lazy to look ATM, but they're almost certainly Engineering Samples.

Oh, gotcha. Just never seen an A0 stepping in recent "release" Xeons.

 

[nanofrog]

Oh, gotcha. Just never seen an A0 stepping in recent "release" Xeons.

It's very rare for A0 to make it to production parts, though it has happened (too many bugs in most cases, so revisions are usually required before the chip reaches RTM status).