September 25, 2012

Modular MacPro design Concept

New design for a MacPro.

It is radical departure from current workstations.
It could be a MacPro for the next 10 years.

Key Design features:


1. Modular Design


Like a Lego Blocks. Computer built from different interlocking sections, highly customizable.
Sections seamlessly connect, and share power & data (Thunderbolt).
Different sections: CPU, Optical, Power Supply, PCI, HDD etc.

One user needs are very different from others, so should be a MacPro.







2. Pro & Consumer CPU Options


Pro:
Server class dual CPUs (Xenon E5), 8 DIMM ECC memory slots.

Consumer:
Consumer CPU i3, i5, i7, 4 DIMM slots.



3. Entering new markets


Various configurations:
  • Small home/ iTunes Server - Competes with NAS makers (QNAP, Synology)
  • Pro Servers (again)
  • Consumers Workstations (Headless iMac)
  • Base Consumer (little better than Mac Mini)
  • Pro Workstations







Peter Zigich
peter@ipack3d.com

4 comments:

  1. Peter,

    Thanks for sharing this. The modularity is an interesting way to look at things. I fear 'real world' circumstances such as structural stability (when lifting this up by the handles) and the cost of manufacturing the various units would make it untenable. Made me smile, though.

    Chidi

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  2. This is very clever.

    As a Web and Graphic Designer, and a Mac Pro user, I have felt that at times the Mac Pro was sometimes an odd fit. My needs might be different from a CAD Engineer, or a Video producer, or a rabid gamer.

    Since the Mac Pro seems to be Apples orphan, there are no longer Mac Pro graphics in Apple stores, I wonder about the platforms future. Tim Cook has promised us "something great" in 2013... but that could easily be an odd beast such as an "iMac Pro"

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  3. This is really nice! We all just could wish that Apple will catch up on this!
    Just missing one "modular variant" where it fits in 19" server racks

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  4. I like the concept. Manufacturing, predicting demand, warehousing, and all that would be a challenge. I think it would be nice of Apple to license a special Pro version of their OS so that the small group of workstation users could make Hackintosh computers that could fit their own needs. Its a very small bunch.

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