There are a lot of Mac Minis being used as servers in rack enclosures. That is both good and bad. ... More than likely, the case size for the Mini isn't going to change,
Which means some aspects of the below has problems.
Referring to the diagram of the 2018 Mini on the iFixit web page:
1. T2 chip goes inside the SoC;
2. PCH goes inside the SoC;
3. More than likely, the PMIC goes inside the SoC;
4. Wifi/Bluetooth and maybe Ethernet controllers go inside the SoC (depends on if Apple goes wireless only);
5. So does the first 16GB of RAM, anything more will be soldered on or from an SODIMM slot (1 only).
Servers that are wireless only? Not going to work. Those same deployments driving keeping the case the same are also going to heavily drive that the Ethernet port stays. ( perhaps even pressure to have two). Zero is probably disconnected from reality.
RAM Memory in the SoC? Probably not.
First,
Not really on iPad 11
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPad+Pro+11-Inch+Teardown/115457
Yellow versus Red highlights above. I can see where a bit on slippery slope on presumption because placed very close, but isn't. Nor does it scale. Current Mac Mini goes from 8 to 64GB . The next gen should scale to 128GB , but minitially needs to go to 64GB. ( also that apple is still going to slap giant mark ups on the RAM component costs so if shift to super high density RAM chips then won't be able to hold the current prices. And fewer are going to pay for even more expensive Minis. ) .
Similarly older iPad Pro
Orange ( RAM) Red (SoC).
We’ve been digging through the cornucopia of Apple’s fall lineup, and today, we're thankful to have the last morsel on our teardown table. We’re...
www.ifixit.com
for the larger , higher clocked A series SoC, Apple hasn't historically put the RAM inside the SoC. Apple Silicon for the Mac is probably going to be clocked higher (higher TDP) and be larger still.
Even if did it the notion that would add other RAM elsewhere on the board to go past 16GB doesn't make much sense. You don't want two substantively different trace lengths between the "banks" of RAM your memory controller(s) is accessing. Usually you want the RAM chips symmetric if serving at the same "level" . On the laptops they are grouped in a block near each other.
PMIC probably won't integrate now either. Apple didn't buy Dialog's PMIC business until late 2018. Any Apple silicon chips rolling out in the next 6-10 months probably was already well into design by then. Pushing it into a multiple chip module probably wouldn't help all that much space wise ( or thermal wise).
Wi-Fi + Bluetooth. The iPhones don't do it. There is even more room in the desktops.
The PCH is slippery slope. Is Apple going to step up and do USB 4 / TB v4 intergration or 'punt' that to some third party?
At least half the board real estate shown will not have components on it.
There is something akin to conservation of mass here. You can chuck gobs and gobs of duties into ta SoC , but that is not necessarily going to make it smaller. Yes Apple is getting a process shrink but guess what their CPU+GPU core has to do more.
Need to drive 4-6 displays. (versus 1-2 for an iPad Pro). And enough GPU "horsepower" so that when driving that things don't start not to keep up. Similarly Much bigger I/O bandwidth issues to wrangle (PCI-e v3 lanes off to more than just a custom SSD. ). The system cache is probably going to substantively grow once add lots more compute units sharing the same unified memory resource. Better Virtualization support . etc.
[ I suspect the Developer Transition Kit with a A12Z is a much smaller board than the Mac Mini 2018's board. But DTK doesn't do I/O wise what the Mini does either. Similar with storage capacity in RAM or at rest storage. ]
There will be a lot of space for SODIMM slots or M.2/SSD connectors. It just really depends on if Apple wants to put them on there. Hard drives will not be available.
There isn't going to be any M.2 connectors any more than there will be SATA connectors.
Apple certainly could blow gobs of space to solder the limited RAM onto the board, but the Mini could be a more competitive system if they didn't. (e.g., bigger or discrete GPU. )
