New Intel Server Processors in Sept.

[Habusho]

Guys, reading at the inquirer, it seems like Intel will be producing new Conroes; Core 2 Duo desktop processor aimed at the server market. From the info on the article these processors will not be mp capable and they're going to be branded as Xeon 3000s. They're going to be single socket dual core Conroes and a whole new server chipset has been created for these chips (Mukilteo-2 chipset).
The link to the article is:
http://www.crn.com/sections/breakin...d=OQTK2GENYLN3GQSNDLSCKHA?articleId=192203162

If apple wanted to created a uniprocessor Mac Pro that would be the chipset and processor to use. We could potentially see cheaper Mac Pros using these processors and chipsets in October.

 

[Mr. Mister]

Interesting find!

 

[G5power]

Interesting. In a quick scan of the article it didn't mention what memory would be used in conjunction with that. Hopefully something more reasonable then that required for the Mac Pro dual processor.

 

[Silentwave]

Neat....doesn't appear on any of their roadmaps but does seem kind of cool.

 

[hadleydb]

Hmm... Maybe I should hold off.

 

[~Shard~]

Bring on the Mac Conroe mini-tower!

 

[Willis]

oo... interesting... odd how it hasnt been mentioned before though

 

[ricgnzlzcr]

Bring on the Mac Conroe mini-tower!

That's all I hear from you Shard! How will you celebrate if we ever get one of those?

 

[poppe]

This isn't the same thing as CNET was talking about. They sent an email out explaining next month intel would release a new server chip that still ran on the Net Burst architecture...

 

[~Shard~]

That's all I hear from you Shard! How will you celebrate if we ever get one of those?

I don't know - it depends how long it would take me to get over the initial shock if Apple did indeed actually release one!

 

[milozauckerman]

If apple wanted to created a uniprocessor Mac Pro that would be the chipset and processor to use. We could potentially see cheaper Mac Pros using these processors and chipsets in October.

Why would these be the solution? If you're selling a single-processor tower, the assumption is that you didn't need the 'workstation' features of a quad Pro, and then you might as well just use Conroe and reasonably-priced DDR2 RAM.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Sorry, guys. They are the 'Xeon 3000 sequence', and are, indeed, just Conroe with a Xeon name, in a Xeon 771 socket. The chipset also will use FB-DIMMs, just like the 5000X chipset in the Mac Pro.

They are meant to be lower-cost server processors, to replace the position in the lineup that Intel had been using Pentium 4 and Pentium D processors and desktop chipsets. The only reason for this new chip is to consolidate all server processors under the 'Xeon' name. The official stance is that for dual-socket 'workstation' systems, you use a Xeon 5100, for a single-socket 'workstation', you use a Core 2 Duo.

But, these Xeon 3000 series chips SHOULD be 'upward' compatible with the 5000X chipset (or, more correctly, the 5000X should be downward compatible,) meaning you might be able to put one Xeon 3000 in a Mac Pro, and it should work. (But it would crap out if you tried to put two of them in.) So it might be conceivable that Apple was waiting for this chip to release a lower-cost single-socket Mac Pro.

Or, they could have the elusive just-plain-'Mac' using a Core 2 Duo and standard DDR2 in the wings.

 

[Chone]

Sorry, guys. They are the 'Xeon 3000 sequence', and are, indeed, just Conroe with a Xeon name, in a Xeon 771 socket. The chipset also will use FB-DIMMs, just like the 5000X chipset in the Mac Pro.

They are meant to be lower-cost server processors, to replace the position in the lineup that Intel had been using Pentium 4 and Pentium D processors and desktop chipsets. The only reason for this new chip is to consolidate all server processors under the 'Xeon' name. The official stance is that for dual-socket 'workstation' systems, you use a Xeon 5100, for a single-socket 'workstation', you use a Core 2 Duo.

But, these Xeon 3000 series chips SHOULD be 'upward' compatible with the 5000X chipset (or, more correctly, the 5000X should be downward compatible,) meaning you might be able to put one Xeon 3000 in a Mac Pro, and it should work. (But it would crap out if you tried to put two of them in.) So it might be conceivable that Apple was waiting for this chip to release a lower-cost single-socket Mac Pro.

Or, they could have the elusive just-plain-'Mac' using a Core 2 Duo and standard DDR2 in the wings.

What Apple needs is a gaming/prosumer Mac, for example a machine with an E6700, 2GB DDR2, P965 chipset (I think this was the high end I may be confused), a stock X1900XT or something and SLI/Crossfire capability, with a pricepoint that feels right between the high end iMac and the Mac Pro, so something like 1800-2000$ would be right on track.

The Mac Pro is nice and all but some people don't need 4 cores and FB-DIMMS but they don't want a low end Core Duo processor in a non-upgradeable case so yeah Apple needs to do something about that, it doesn't have have to be a mini-tower, as far as it goes for me they can either use the mac pro case or bring back the stylish G4 cases

Yeah its nice to dream.