At WWDC19, Apple the Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR were the last hardware introduced in Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. Focusing on the “pro” market, both of the products have been praised for their power and utility.
According to a Reddit user, Apple removed from its YouTube channel the Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR video announcement. Although this doesn’t mean something is about to happen, here’s what we know of Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR’s future.
Apple started in 2020 the two-years transition to its own silicon, but it’s been unclear whether the Mac Pro will receive Apple’s own M series chip or will stay a bit longer with Intel processor.
A month ago, for example, Bloomberg reported that Apple is said to be working on an all-new Mac Pro with 40 cores. A 20-core chip would also be in the works with GPU options with 64 and 128 cores.
Codenamed Jade 2C-Die and Jade 4C-Die, a redesigned Mac Pro is planned to come in 20 or 40 computing core variations, made up of 16 high-performance or 32 high-performance cores and four or eight high-efficiency cores. The chips would also include either 64 core or 128 core options for graphics. The computing core counts top the 28 core maximum offered by today’s Intel Mac Pro chips, while the higher-end graphics chips would replace parts now made by Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
About its design, Bloomberg says it is “expected to look like a smaller version of the current design.”
Although the Mac Pro with Apple Silicon announcement seemed on the schedule for sometime this year or the next, last week, the first beta of Xcode 13 included a new reference to scalable Intel Ice Lake Xeon processor support, seemingly destined for a future Mac Pro update.
With that, Apple’s plan to introduce a new Mac Pro with its own silicon could be delayed. In a post on Twitter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman doubled down this claim and said “Apple has indeed been working on an update to the Intel Mac Pro.”
The reference found in Xcode 13 beta 1 is to Ice Lake SP, which is Intel’s newest Xeon Scalable processor. Apple currently uses Intel Xeon W processors in the Mac Pro, so this would represent a notable boost in performance.
This all means that although Apple’s transition to its own silicon is doing fine, as the company already introduced four different Macs and one iPad with the M1 processor, the company will still give its Intel Macs one last breath.
What about the Pro Display XDR?
As for now, there isn’t any news related to a next-gen Pro Display XDR. But a Bloomberg report earlier this year said that Apple is working on a new external monitor that won’t be as fancy as the Pro Display XDR, but it should cost much less:
The cheaper monitor would feature a screen geared more for consumer than professional use and wouldn’t have the brightness and contrast ratio of the top-tier offering. Apple last launched a consumer-grade monitor called the Thunderbolt Display in 2011 for $999 but discontinued it in 2016.
9to5Mac’s Filipe Espósito recently wrote an article saying that Apple should bring back its Cinema Display:
“While I don’t expect Apple will make the Pro Display XDR more affordable, the company should reconsider bringing back Cinema Display as an alternative for regular users. It doesn’t have to feature a 32-inch 6K display with super HDR or Mini-LED, but it can have above-average quality with the macOS integration that only Apple can do.“
When do you think Apple will introduce a new Mac Pro
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