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What's after the 2012 MacPro?
- Thread starter ekwipt
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Ivy Bridge Xeons available in the first half of next year. Haswell sometime in 2014 or later if Intel are lengthening their production times for the Xeon platform.
Back in late Winter and early Spring articles speculated about early 2013
January
http://news.softpedia.com/news/10-Core-Intel-Ivy-Bridge-EP-CPU-Has-95W-TDP-at-2-4GHz-245709.shtml
April ( after the release "announcement" )
http://vr-zone.com/articles/ivy-bri...--the-multi-socket-platform-heaven/15488.html
However, that was before true volume availability apparently slid into June/July. Even the more mainstream Ivy solutions have slid about a quarter (3 months) from where Intel was putting them 18 months ago.
Betting on one of Intel's 12 month projections being extremely accurate is a bad bet right now.
There will be an Intel developers meeting in September/October time frame. That would be the time where the estimates of future schedule might actually be creditable.
Intel have more than a few things to finish pushing out the door on the new Process. As the article mentions they have got EX ( the E7's ) which skipped Sandy Bridge altogether. The EP (the E5s ). the IB-E ( i7 39xx version 2 ) variants of the basic EP. They also have their MIC ( Many Integrated Core ) Knights Crossing with 50 cores coming also.
That's alot of roll outs which likely aren't going to even start until 2013 begins.
If they stick to the old track record it is about 12 months after "tock" (architecture update) for a "tick" (shrink). The time after the "tick" is the one that is becoming much more highly variable. As the CPU package absorbs more ( high speed PCI-e controllers, memory controllers , GPU , etc.) and the chipsets absorb more ( SAS RAID controllers , USB 3.0 , SATA III ) there things that can go wrong.
Post the "upgrade" of dropping Ivy Bridge E5's into essentially the same Motherboard in 2013 I don't think anyone knows for sure; even Apple. If Apple doesn't see good unit numbers out of the Mac Pro it could be on death row. In short it is not solely up to Apple or Intel (or the other major part suppliers ) whether the Mac Pro continues or not. If there are enough folks buying then it a question of waiting for parts.
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And now this starts...
Exactly. In my case I haven't seen the new Mac Pro 6,1 but I am disappointed in it and will wait for the 7,1.
LOL... this took much less time than I thought!
When is skymont coming out? Intel should go straight to 10nm fabs
. If AMD was really pushing them, they'd be down to picometers by now. Hehe..
Edit: I'm aware of the lack of feasibility there given that we'd be down to atomic measurements. At some point any potential gains would have to come from different design changes.
Yes i might as well quote you as well as everyone else with similar posts above.
I've been pretty certain there will be a MacPro upgrade for a long time, was a little worried or stumped by how long it's taken but I'm pretty sure after the SKU were leaked and I'm feeling pretty positive right now.
I've got a 2008 MacPro that's been serving me pretty well, I'm happy to wait until first half of next year.
Ivy bridge will be a good match and then I'll sit back for a few more years.
We don't have any concrete information about the Ivy Bridge Xeons. Why do you think it will be a good match?
I agree. I don't know why this piece of news is often quoted, this time from Cult Of Mac:
Of course any 2012 Mac Pro released this month would use Sandy Bridge Xeon E5's. The Ivy Bridge Xeon's don't yet exist. Right?
Some ivy bridge xeons have been released, but they aren't the CPUs that normally go into the mac pro. That sort of reporting is atrocious.
Why does everyone care about Ivy? Everyone! It is a little bump. It has proven nothing but same 5-10% gain as before. It has heat issues for overclockers which generally means it is less than durable compared to SB-E variants. Is the name Ivy so much more enticing than Sandy? Care about Ivy if you need mobility thanks to integrated GPU gains. It is less attractive as a desktop chip right now. And the GPU is removed from the Xeon versions anyway.
LOL... this took much less time than I thought!
I'm surprised it took this long
Yes there is a bit "latest greatest" envy, but the speed bumps won't be from the microarchitecture, it will come from the process shrink. There is little generally wrong with a process shrink as it typically leads to "faster".
For those with workloads that scale by core Ivy likely means another two cores in the single package line up and another 4 cores in the dual package line up. That will be much more than 5-10% on those workloads.
We'll see. If they cap the E5 1600 cores that their current level for Ivy (at 6), it is probably even more likely will see some iGPU additions to the E5 line up when get to Haswell. If they move the 1600's to 8 max that will be not so good sign for iGPU at next step.
Overclocking is overrated. Processor controlled dynamical adjustments to clocks are only going to get more effective in the next couple of generations.
The funky "Turbo" buttom from white boxes of the 80's-90's is going the way of the VGA socket.
Actually the Xeons as a brand name have picked up the iGPU. The E3's.
They are likely coming to the elements of the E5 series that are workstation aligned also. Either at Haswell or at the next process shrink after 22nm (Broadwell ) . 10 cores is getting in to the goofy range to keep adding fully complex x86 versions. Dual packages will have 20 cores. Quad packages 40.
At some point the "cores for cores sake" becomes a dead end just like the "GHz for GHz sake " was a dead end for the Pentium 4. Probably different cores and different abilities mixed on the same die rather than just being core junkies.
Whatever "hack" Apple comes out with to deliver Thunderbolt with the Mac Pro with is completely dissolved if the workstation E5 either have iGPUs or glut of PCI-e lanes to deploy. The E5 2600 series already has the glut. There is only one missing piece; the 1600's.