The Mac Pro is a workstation computer manufactured by Apple Inc. The machines are based on Xeon microprocessors, but are similar to the Power Mac G5 they replaced in terms of outward appearance and expansion capabilities. The Mac Pro, in most configurations, is the fastest computer that Apple offers and one of three desktop computers in the current Macintosh lineup, the other two being the iMac and Mac Mini.
The first Mac Pro was based on dual Dual-core Xeon Woodcrest processors and formally announced on August 7, 2006 at WWDC. A new Intel Xeon-based Xserve was announced along with the Mac Pro, completing Apple's transition from the PowerPC to x86 architecture.
On April 4, 2007, a dual Quad-core Xeon Clovertown model was launched and it was replaced on January 8, 2008 by a dual Quad-core Xeon Harpertown model. The current model Mac Pro was announced on July 27, 2010 and features Intel Xeon processors based on the Nehalem microarchitecture/Westmere microarchitecture. There are options of up to 12 processing cores, up to four optional 2TB hard disk drives/512GB solid state drives and ATI Radeon HD 5770/5870 graphics.
On November 5, 2010, Apple introduced the Mac Pro Server, which—alongside the server option for the Mac mini—replace the Xserve line of Apple servers as of January 2011.
Processors
The current 8 core standard configuration Mac Pro uses two Quad core Intel E5620 Xeon processors @2.4 GHz, but can be configured with up to two Hexacore Core Intel Xeon Processor X5670 @2.93 GHz. All current Mac Pros have processors with 12Mb of Intel Smart cache(L3 cache). All current Mac Pro processors are capable of Intel's Turbo Boost technology (similar to Intel's SpeedStep technology), which dynamically boosts the clock rate of a core in intervals of 133 MHz if the CPU temperature is below average conditions.
Memory
The original Mac Pro's main memory used 667 MHz DDR2 ECC FB-DIMMs; the early 2008 model used 800 MHz ECC DDR2 FB-DIMMS, the current Mac Pro uses 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC DIMMs for the standard models, and 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC DIMMs for systems configured with a 2.66 Ghz or faster processors. In the original and 2008 models, these modules are installed in pairs, one each on two riser cards. The cards have 4 DIMM slots each, allowing a total of 32 GB of memory (8 x 4 GB) to be installed.[18] Notably, due to its FB-DIMM architecture, installing more RAM in the Mac Pro will improve its memory bandwidth, but may also increase its memory latency. With a simple install of a single FB-DIMM the peak bandwidth is 8 GB/s, but this can increase to 16 GB/s by installing two FB-DIMMs, one on each of the two buses, which is the default configuration from Apple. While electrically the FB-DIMMs are standard, Apple requests that users use larger-than-normal heatsinks on the memory modules that they install. Problems have been reported by users who have used third party RAM that had normal sized FB-DIMM heatsinks. (see notes below).
Hard drives
An example of a Mac Pro's hard drive tray.The Mac Pro has room for four internal 3.5" SATA-300 hard drives. The hard drives are mounted on individual trays (also known as 'sleds') by captive thumbscrews similar to the ones used for the PCIe expansion slots. A set of four drive trays is supplied with each machine. Adding hard drives to the system does not require cables to be attached as the drive is connected to the system simply by inserting it in the corresponding drive slot. A case lock on the back of the system locks the disks trays into their positions.
The Mac Pro is also available with an optional hardware RAID card. With the addition of a SAS controller card or SAS RAID controller card, SAS drives can be directly connected to the system's SATA ports.
Two optical drive bays are provided, each with a corresponding SATA-300 port and an ATA-100 port. Many optical drives require the older style ATA ports, including those currently shipped with new machines.
The Mac Pro has one P-ATA port and can support two P-ATA devices. It has a total of six SATA ports – four are connected to the system's drive bays, and two are not connected. These extra SATA ports can be put into service through the use of after-market extender cables to connect internal Optical drives, or to provide eSATA ports with the use of an eSATA bulkhead connector. However, the two extra SATA ports are currently unsupported and disabled under Boot Camp.
At the current time, a built to order Mac Pro can be configured with up to 8 TB of storage (4 x 2TB disks).
Expansion cards
For internal expansion the current Mac Pro has four PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 expansion slots. The 2008 model had two PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 expansion slots and two PCI Express 1.1 slots, providing them with up to 300 W of power in total. The first slot is double wide and intended to hold the main video card, arranged with an empty area the width of a normal card beside it in order to leave room for the large coolers modern cards often use. In most machines, one slot would be blocked by the cooler. Instead of the tiny screws typically used to fasten the cards to the case, in the Mac Pro a single "bar" holds the cards in place, which is itself held in place by two "captive" thumbscrews that can be loosened by hand without tools and will not fall out of the case.
The PCIe slots can be configured individually to give more bandwidth to devices that require it, with a total of 40 "lanes", or 13 GB/s total throughput. When running Mac OS X, the Mac Pro currently does not support SLI or ATI CrossFire,[23] limiting its ability to use the latest "high-end gaming" video card products; however, individuals have reported success with both CrossFire and SLI installations when running Windows XP, as SLI and CrossFire compatibility is largely a function of software.
The bandwidth allocation of the PCIe slots can be configured via the Expansion Slot Utility included with Mac OS X only on the August 2006 Mac Pro. The Mac Pro (Early 2008) has its slots hardwired as follows.
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