Rumors of a refresh of the aging Mac Pro began in November 2015, as hints to a new Mac Pro were found embedded in the source code of the developer preview of Apple Mac OS X El Capitan. The code referenced to a AAPLJ951,1 with hints to some of the hardware features we might find in the new model. The code snippet, published last year by Pike’s Universum, seems to imply that the new Mac Pro will feature as many as ten(10) USB ports. By this token, these hints may be purely placeholders, and the new setup could very well reflect the same 4 USB + 6 Thunderbolt (=10) as the 2013 model.
With that said, word has it that Thunderbolt 3 and USB Type C could make it into the rebooted Mac Pro, as well as the name Lightning port said to replace the 3.5 audio jack in the next iPhone.
While not much else has transpired from Pike’s findings, other rumors have been accumulating in regard to a possible reboot of a machine that is getting rather long in the tooth, at least for its intended market.
There is a good chance that Apple will keep its own tradition of hosting a big Mac fall event, which could happen in September. The event won’t be announced to members of the press until mere weeks before Tim Cook walks on stage, but there is a good chance that Apple will unveil a number of important product updates, including the much talked-about MacBook Pro with OLED touch strip, and with a bit of luck, a 2016 Mac Pro
There is very little leaked information about the possible specs for the Mac Pro, but one thing is certain: there won’t be production delays this time around. Intel’s new production pipeline has shown progress in the rate at which new processors are being churned out, which means that supply of new Xeon CPUs won’t hold back production of the next generation high-performance workstation.
Speaking of which, the E3-1200 V5 Xeon Skylake is a potential candidate for the new Mac Pro, and just as in the current Mac Pro, it could come in pairs. Memory specs have been narrowed down to 64GB DDR3, among some of the options.