MP All Models System 76 made the ARM Mac Pro we actually want?

[mattspace]

System76 and Ampere® pioneer custom-built Thelio Astra arm64 developer desktop

System76 Thelio Astra arm64 developer desktop for autonomous driving and software-defined vehicle developers.

blog.system76.com

Denver, CO—October 22, 2024—System76, the leading US-based manufacturer of Linux computers, has collaborated with chipmaker Ampere to create Thelio Astra, an arm64 developer desktop for autonomous vehicle (AV), automotive safety systems (ADAS), and software-defined vehicle (SDV) development. Software development, testing, and simulation natively on the same architecture as arm-based automotive ECUs is faster, cost-effective, consumes less power, and promotes safer roads with smarter prototypes.

Engineered around the intense demands of autonomous driving, advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), and software-defined vehicle (SDV) development, Thelio Astra brings automakers closer to delivering their vision for self-driving vehicle, with arm-native development on the Ampere® Altra® family of processors and lifetime in-house support from a reputable Linux shop. System76’s nimble team of production, QA, mechanical engineers, software engineers, and support technicians—all under the same roof in their factory in Denver—operates as a well-oiled machine, serving industry-leading clients around the world with their expertise.

Software-defined vehicles, ADAS and autonomous vehicles rely on arm64 embedded systems. Until now, such software testing relied on inefficient arm emulation or limited performance automotive ECUs. System76’s Thelio Astra changes the game, offering arm64 and NVIDIA GPU support out of the box.

“System76 is revolutionizing modern computing first with their Thelio Mega AI/ML power desktop, and now with Thelio Astra, an arm developer desktop engineered to meet the demands of autonomous vehicle development,” said Tony Rosella, Product Manager of System76. “We’ve created this optimized workstation built around the powerful Ampere processors, and designed for the unique challenges of automotive developers.”

“End-to-end native parity is what the automotive industry needs to deliver better quality software faster. This 128-core desktop runs dozens of virtual ECUs executing thousands of unit tests.” says Joe Speed, Head of Edge at Ampere, adding, “System76 is democratizing AV and SDV development by putting this power into the developer’s hands, right on their desk.”

Thelio Astra: Designed for AI-Driven Autonomous Vehicles

Developers require specialized tools to ensure peak performance, compatibility, and reliability when developing and testing the software that powers AVs, ADAS, and digital cockpits with SOAFEE. Thelio Astra’s custom design optimizes the relationship between its thermal systems and Ampere® Altra® processors, offering:

● Compatibility: arm64 and NVIDIA GPU support out of the box, eliminating the need for arm emulation.

● Power: The thermal system is meticulously engineered to prevent thermal throttling, ensuring reliable, sustained performance during the most intensive workloads.

● Support: System76 offers lifetime in-house support, highly rated for its expertise and responsiveness, giving developers peace of mind when working on critical projects.

● Cost-Effective: More powerful and cheaper than bare metal cloud GPU instances. It pays for itself in months. The Ampere® Altra® CPUs which power Thelio Astra yield much faster arm64 software testing than arm64 emulation on x86 workstations and servers — and it does this while consuming a fraction of the power.

Thelio Astra can be configured with up to:

● 128-core Ampere® Altra® (3.0 GHz)

● 512GB 8 channel DDR4 ECC memory (3200 MHz)

● NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada GPU

● 16TB PCIe 4.0 M.2 NVMe storage

● Dual 25 Gigabit ethernet SPF28

Empowering Automotive Developers

Automotive software should be developed and tested natively on arm64 architecture to minimize cross-compilation, cross-platform debugging, and avoid unexpected behaviors. With accelerated development and testing on native hardware, Thelio Astra gets us closer to ubiquitous autonomy and our software-defined vehicle future. Developers can greatly simplify their environments, “shift-left” their testing with “arm virtual hardware” instead of emulation. You can see the difference for yourself with qemu-coremark. Thelio Astra offers an all-in-one solution, taking care of compatibility and performance so developers can focus on reshaping the future of transportation.

Release Information

Thelio Astra is scheduled for release November 12th, 2024—opening up new possibilities for developers in the automotive AV, SDV, ADAS space and arm enthusiasts.

 

[azpekt]

These guys are great. Top notch quality - had both of their Launch keyboards

 

[Pressure]

That is a niche within a niche. Automotive Developers. How many on the entire planet does that cover? Less than 5,000?

People in DTP, publishing, photography, videography, graphic design, other creative fields and media used Mac Pro's en masse. It's just that computers have become so fast that most of those tasks can be done on other models now as long as they have an sufficient amount of RAM (although back in the day we still got things done on mere megabytes).

This thing has 128 of the slowest cores put inside a modern computer. It doesn't even rival the M4 in performance for normal tasks as the single-core performance is junk.

 

[mattspace]

That is a niche within a niche. Automotive Developers. How many on the entire planet does that cover? Less than 5,000?

People in DTP, publishing, photography, videography, graphic design, other creative fields and media used Mac Pro's en masse. It's just that computers have become so fast that most of those tasks can be done on other models now as long as they have an sufficient amount of RAM (although back in the day we still got things done on mere megabytes).

This thing has 128 of the slowest cores put inside a modern computer. It doesn't even rival the M4 in performance for normal tasks as the single-core performance is junk.

I'm thinking mote of the architecture of the system - dedicated GPU, proper RAM etc. But the Mac Pro has always been slower on single core than other machines in Apple's range. Fast single-core isn't its job.

 

[avro707]

That lot have some monster machines on offer!

Thelio Mega!

 

[Pressure]

I'm thinking mote of the architecture of the system - dedicated GPU, proper RAM etc. But the Mac Pro has always been slower on single core than other machines in Apple's range. Fast single-core isn't its job.

I would love the option for more GPU cores and post-buying options for SSD sizes and RAM but it appears that ship have sailed 😅

The first five iterations (2006 to 2012) of the Intel era Mac Pro were great value. The problem have always been that Apple never really offered an upgrade path for just the GPU, so we were stuck with whatever bone they threw our way. They also did restrict after market CPU upgrades to just what they offered by limiting the CPU microcode in the nonstandard EFI despite the chipset officially supporting more 😕

 

[mattspace]

I would love the option for more GPU cores and post-buying options for SSD sizes and RAM but it appears that ship have sailed 😅

Maybe if Apple weren't so busy trying to keep up with real GPU makers, and trying to stuff a GPU into their CPUs, they'd be capable of shipping a desktop class CPU. 🤣

But sure the M4 Mac Pro is coming Real Soon Now™️, just ignore the dysfunctional silicon roadmap behind the curtain.

 

[avro707]

The problem have always been that Apple never really offered an upgrade path for just the GPU, so we were stuck with whatever bone they threw our way.

The problem is that everyone just accepted that from Apple and didn’t kick up a stink about it.

So of course Apple continues on its bad ways with needlessly bespoke components at stupid pricing.

The best thing we can do is to not buy any future Mac Pro or studio model.