Apple debuts 8-core Mac Pro

10 January 2008

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript" SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/onscreenasia.com/;sect=home;pos=imu;sz=300x250;abr=!ie;ord=984920680?" ></SCRIPT>
USA: Apple has introduced the new Mac Pro which comes with eight processor cores and new system architecture. The new Mac Pro combines two of Intel’s new 45 nanometer Quad-Core Xeon 5400 series processors running up to 3.2 GHz, new graphics and up to 4TB of internal storage to offer a system suitable for creatives, 3D digital content creators and scientists.
Mac Pro’s Quad-Core Xeon processors have 12MB of L2 cache each. It also has a new high-bandwidth hardware architecture, dual-independent 1600 MHz front side buses and up to 32GB of 800 MHz DDR2 ECC FB-DIMM memory.
The standard Mac Pro comes with the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics card with 256MB of video memory. It also includes a new PCI Express 2.0 graphics slot that delivers up to double the bandwidth of the previous generation. It supports new graphics cards including NVIDIA’s GeForce 8800 GT and Quadro FX 5600, as well as provides a 3-D stereo port for stereo-in-a-window applications. With support for up to four graphics cards, the new Mac Pro can drive up to eight 30-inch displays simultaneously for advanced visualization and large display walls.
The Mac Pro also features four internal hard drive bays with direct-attach installation for four 1TB SATA hard drives, totaling 4TB of internal storage and support for two SuperDrives. 15,000 rpm SAS drives delivering up to 250MB/s of RAID 5 disk I/O performance makes the Mac Pro suitable for video editing work. Connectivity options include five USB 2.0, two FireWire 400, two FireWire 800, optical and analogue audio in and out, dual Gigabit Ethernet ports and a headphone jack.
Apple’s Leopard also features in the Mac Pro, bringing more than 300 new features as well as an improved scheduler and multi-core technology to take advantage of the Mac Pro’s multi-core system to speed up applications.
The standard Mac Pro is available at US$2,799) through the Apple Store at www.apple.com and Apple Authorized Resellers. Build-to-order options and pricing information are available at www.apple.com/macpro.