How much faster is the Mac Pro than the Power Mac G5 Quad? Is it
actually faster? Bare Feats investigates. Also looking at
configuration options, Parallels updated, and lots more.
PowerBook, iBook, and other portable computing news is covered
in The 'Book Review. General
Apple and Mac desktop news is covered in The Mac News Review.
Mac Pro vs. Quad G5
Bare Feats' rob-ART Morgan reports:
"We were able to get our hands on a 2.66 GHz Mac Pro yesterday! While we're waiting for
our 3 GHz Mac Pro to arrive, we thought it would be instructive to
run some of our real world tests to compare the 2.66 GHz model to
the Quad-Core G5/2.5 GHz Power
Mac....
"There's no doubt that the Mac Pro is faster running Universal
Binary apps like iMovie, Final Cut Pro....
"We are impressed with the Mac Pro's performance. We'll be even
more impressed when Adobe's UB apps appear in 'second quarter of
2007.'"
Link: Shootout: Mac Pro versus
Quad G5
Mac Faithful 'More Impressed by Form than
Function'
Mac Faithful 'More Impressed by Form than Function'
NetNewsAsia's Thingfish says:
"Phwoooooaaaaarrrr! Apple's new Mac Pro is a silver dream
machine
"I've seen some of the world's most spectacular sights in my
time: From the Great Wall and the Cistine Chapel to Jessica Alba
cracking her whip in Sin City. But of all the wonders in
this world, few can hold a candle to the silver dream machine
that's just rolled out of Apple's garage.
"Just look at this thing. The 'old' PowerMac G5, released just two years ago,
was a thing of beauty, but the Mac
Pro is a joy; a De Vinci [sic] in a world of grey desktops.
...Mac acolytes always have been more
impressed by form than function.
"Somehow, many of the Mac faithful were disappointed on Monday,
when Steve Jobs unveiled the new machines. They thought the speech
was boring, Jobs was uninspiring and the case design they once
whooped over was old hat. Mac users can be petulant gits; their
Great Leader gives them the most powerful computer they've ever
had, at a lower price, and they moan that it doesn't look different
enough. But then Mac acolytes always have been more impressed by
form than function.
"Or maybe, just as Apple has recharted its destiny from doomed
elitist snob into creative, consumer powerhouse, the cult of the
Mac is moving to the mainstream. And the followers are unhappy to
share their pews with the unwashed masses."
Link:
Mac Faithful Sulk at Apple's Success
Meet the Xeon: Inside the Mac Pro's
Processor
Macworld's Rick LePage reports:
"Although Intel has been using the Xeon name since 1998, the
dual-core Xeon 5100 processors that power the Mac Pro and Xserve lines are entirely new chips, based
on Intel's 64-bit Core architecture platform. This platform was
initially introduced to the public late in 2005, with chips
continuing to roll out throughout this year; it includes the Core
Duo and Core Solo processors used in the Mac mini and the iMac, as well as some other chips that
haven't shown up in Macs - at least not yet.
"Code-named 'Woodcrest,' the Xeon 5100 debuted at the end of
June, and was designed to offer top-speed computational throughput
with better power efficiency than Intel's previous high-end
processors. The company terms it a 'server' chip, although most
hardware vendors, Apple included, will use it in professional
systems like the Mac Pro. That's due to the fact that the chip was
designed to excel at the processing of huge amounts of data, like
those found in real-world applications like movie production with
Final Cut Pro, or image editing in applications like Aperture or
Adobe Photoshop (once Photoshop is Intel-native on OS X)."
Link: Meet the
Xeon: Inside the Mac Pro's Processor
Mobile CPU Wars: Core 2 Duo vs. Core Duo
AnandTech's Anand Lal Shimpi reports:
"While the world has been focused on the launch of Intel's
desktop Core 2 Duo, codenamed Conroe, Intel has been readying its
mobile counterpart also called Core 2 Duo. With only a few changes
to its desktop counterpart - mainly its lower clock speeds and FSB
frequency and thus lower power - there's no reason to call the
mobile version anything but Core 2 Duo.
"There hasn't been much interest in Core 2 Duo on the mobile side
for two major reasons; for starters, unlike on the desktop, Intel
already had a very competent mobile CPU - the Yonah based Core Duo
processor. Seeing as how Core Duo is the predecessor to Core 2 Duo,
you can already expect that Intel's current mobile performance is
quite good."
Link: Mobile
CPU Wars: Core 2 Duo vs. Core Duo
Mac Pro Configuration Dilemma
MacUser's Derik DeLong says:
"As Apple is really pushing the whole build-to-order thing, I
imagine a lot of people are, like me, wondering what to change. A
quick rundown is in order.
"First, RAM and hard drive. For RAM, get the minimum. Apple's
prices are always way too high. You've got six slots left you can
jam full. As for the hard drives, this is new territory as the G5
had such limited options...."
Link: Mac Pro
Configuration Dilemma
Apple's Mac Pro: A Discussion of
Specifications
Anand Lal Shimpi says:
"Since Apple built the Mac Pro out of Intel workstation
components, it unfortunately has to use more expensive Intel
workstation memory. In other words, cheap unbuffered DDR2 isn't an
option, its time to welcome ECC enabled Fully Buffered DIMM (FBD)
to your Mac.
"Years ago, Intel saw two problems happening with most
mainstream memory technologies: 1) As we pushed for higher speed
memory, the number of memory slots per channel went down, and 2)
the rest of the world was going serial (USB, SATA and more
recently, Hyper Transport, PCI Express, etc...) yet we were still
using fairly antiquated parallel memory buses."
- Link: Apple's
Mac Pro: A Discussion of Specifications
Mac Pro the End of One Era, the Beginning of
Another
Ars Technica's Eric Bangeman says:
"I thought I was getting a new Macintosh PC. Instead, the box
said 'Quad Xeon 64-bit workstation.' It was then that it really hit
me - the Big Switch was over and my once shiny Power Macintosh G5
was yesterday's news.
"The introduction of the new, yet familiar-looking Mac Pro at
the Worldwide Developers Conference (along with the updated Xserve)
closed the book on the PowerPC's 12-year run in Apple's product
lineup. And it all happened so fast. Just last year, Steve Jobs
stood in front of the gathered masses and dropped the big
bombshell."
Link: Mac Pro the
End of One Era, the Beginning of Another
New Horizons for Intel-based Macs
Forbes' Scott Reeves reports:
"Apple Computer's transition to Intel chips will improve
Macintosh's software development, according to Piper Jaffray
analysts.
"Gene Muster and Michael J. Olson of Piper Jaffray spoke to 16
software developers last week at Apple's World Wide Developers
Conference and found that 14 said running Windows on Mac will
'positively impact' Mac application development."
Link:
New Horizons for Intel-based Macs
Boot Camp Offers Best of PC, Macs
thetriangle.org's Charles Rumford says:
"In a recent commentary ('Boot Camp offers few incentives for
Macintosh users to use Windows,' April 14), fellow columnist Mat
Boyle wrote about the new Apple program Boot Camp, which enables
Intel-based Mac users (those with a MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac or
Mac mini) to run Windows on their machines. At the time of its
release, I was not a full-time Mac user due to the fact that I
didn't actually own one. Now that I own a Mac, I decided to give
Boot Camp a try and run Windows.
"I had been contemplating installing Windows on my 3-month-old
MacBook Pro after a series of events. During the Governor's School
program, I was responsible for administering 60 Windows-based
laptops for the students and staff, and used programs that you can
only run on Windows. It would have been easier to be able to go
back and forth between Mac OS X and Windows XP if they were on the
same machine. I did the research and decided that, because Boot
Camp was still in beta, it wasn't worth having to reformat and
reinstall if things went wrong."
Link:
Boot Camp Offers Best of PC, Macs
Welcome to Mac OS Forge!
PR: Mac OS X includes a wide variety of open source
software from FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, the GNU Project, and many
more projects each its own vibrant developer community.
Mac OS Forge is dedicated to supporting the developer community
surrounding open source components specific to Mac OS X. Here you
will find resources for working with the source code to popular
Apple-original projects, as well as third party projects that are
closely related to the Macintosh operating system.
Only select projects in Mac OS X are featured at Mac OS Forge.
Visit for the complete set of open source software found in Mac
OS X.
Link: Mac OS
Forge
Parallels Workstation 2.2.1862
Released
PR: Parallels
Desktop for Mac is the first solution that
gives Apple users the ability to run Windows at the same time as
Mac OS X in a secure, stable, isolated virtual machine.
Parallels Desktop works with any Intel-powered Apple, including the
iMac, Mac mini, MacBook and MacBook Pro.
Parallels Workstation is a hardware emulation virtualization
solution. This stable, trusted technology maps the host computer's
hardware resources directly to each virtual PC's resources,
allowing each virtual machine to operate identically to a
stand-alone computer. Parallels Workstation's sophisticated virtual
machine engine enables each virtual machine to work with its own
processor, RAM, floppy and CD drives, I/O devices, and hard disk -
everything a physical computer contains.
Parallels Workstation 2.0 is the first desktop virtualization
solution to include a lightweight hypervisor, a mature technology
originally developed in the 1960s to maximize the power of large
mainframes. Hypervisor technology dramatically improves virtual
machine stability, security, and performance by using a thin layer
of software, inserted between the machine's hardware and the
primary operating system, to directly control some of the host
machine's hardware profiles and resources. It not only makes
Parallels Workstation-powered virtual machines secure, stable and
efficient, but also empowers users to immediately realize the
benefits associated with Intel VT hardware virtualization
architecture.
New in version 2.2.186:
- Video output improvement and acceleration
- Added multi interfaces USB devices support (including Windows
Mobile 2005 devices)
- Added isochronous USB devices support (including webcam
devices)
- Minor USB fixes
- Keyboard support improvement: Eject CD key support, left/right
Shift/Ctrl/Alt (Option)/Windows keys difference support
- Added virtual disk cache policy option: Mac OS X performance
optimized or guest OS performance optimized
- Image Tool fixes
- Optimized disk cache policy for Suspend/Resume feature
- Windows ME Suspend/Resume fix
- Shared Folders first time access acceleration
- Clipboard synchronization tool fixes (unreadable symbols
sometimes added during copy and paste)
- Sound playback improvement
- Sound recording improvement
- Minor Full Screen mode fixes "Unable to allocate virtual
memory" during virtual machine power on fix
- Minor GUI fixes and improvements
- Solaris doesn't work with more than one virtual disk fix
Parallels Workstation Key Features:
- Hypervisor Technology for Stronger, More Stable Virtual
Machines: Parallels Workstation is the first desktop virtualization
solution to include a lightweight hypervisor that directly controls
some of the host computer's hardware resources. The inclusion of
this trusted, mature technology ensures that virtual PCs built
using Parallels Workstation are the most stable and efficient
available.
- Optimized for Hardware Virtualization: Parallels Workstation's
lightweight hypervisor fully supports the benefits of
next-generation CPUs built on Intel's VT architecture, and will
support AMD Pacifica architecture when it is released to the
general public.
- Strong OS Support: A sophisticated virtual machine engine that
offers the broadest support of x86-based operating systems,
including:
- The entire Windows family - 3.1, 3.11, 95, 98, Me, 2000, XP and
2003
- Linux distributions from popular distributors like Red Hat,
SuSE, Mandriva, Debian and Fedora Core
- FreeBSD
- "Legacy" operating systems like OS/2, eComStation and
MS-DOS.
- Easy to Install, Easy to Use: A powerful wizard enables users
to create virtual machines in seconds. The industry's cleanest,
most user-friendly management console ensures hassle free control
of all virtual machines.
- Highly Efficient: A small program footprint and trusted
hypervisor technology maximizes the efficiency of both the primary
and guest OSes.
- Lowest TCO: At only $49.99 per license, Parallels Workstation
is the most cost effective virtual PC solution available today. Its
ease of use, high-efficiency, quick startup time and responsive
technical support program maximize value and significantly reduce
TCO.
New in version 2.1:
Parallels Workstation 2.1 offers a number of new features,
broader hardware and OS support, enhanced functionality and
performance, and fixes some known issues from version 2.0. A
complete list of new features, functions, support and fixes is
below:
New Features:
- A completely new, visually stunning user interface.
- Better virtual machine performance, stability and
isolation.
- "Suspend and resume" functionality lets you instantly suspend a
virtual machine's state and resume it at a later time without
having to completely shut down and start up a guest operating
system.
- Support for Physical Address Extension (PAE) allows Workstation
2.1 to run on PAE-enabled primary OSes with up to 4 GB of
RAM.
- An improved, redesigned Parallels Tools package for Windows
that provides useful add-on features that let each user customize
their Parallels Workstation experience. New tools include
guest/host time synchronization and complete support for normal
video modes in Windows 95, 98 and Me.
- New "Compacting Hard Disk" feature that removes unused space
from expanding virtual machine hard drives, increasing the free
disk space of the primary OS.
- Improved OS/2 guest performance.
Stronger Hardware Support:
- USB Support enables you to access a wide range of popular USB
devices directly in virtual machines.
- Wireless networking support in Windows frees users from network
cables. Now, you can connect virtual machines to the Internet via
any WiFi connection.
- Improved sound support and sound recording feature. Now you can
work with your favorite programs which require microphone or line
in inside Parallels.
- Stronger support for Intel VT® technology that improves the
speed, performance and stability of virtual machines running on
VT-powered computers.
- Virtual processor supports more features and improves
performance of a modern operating systems in virtual machines.
- Better programmable interval timer (PIT) support: extends
legacy OSes and legacy applications support.
Broader OS Support:
- Primary and guest OS support for SUSE Linux 10.
- Guest OS support for Sun Solaris.
System support: Intel
$39.99 demoware
Link: Parallels Desktop
for Mac
ATTO Delivers Blazing-Fast Transfer
Rates for Mac Pro
PR: ATTO Technology, Inc., a global leader of storage
connectivity and infrastructure solutions for data-intensive
computing environments, announces support for the Apple Macintosh
next generation Intel Server architecture for its complete line of
SCSI, Fibre Channel and SAS Host and RAID adapters. ATTO ExpressPCI
SCSI adapters, Celerity Fibre Channel adapters, and ExpressSAS RAID
adapters are the only PCI Express (PCIe) adapters available today
that support Mac OS X on the Intel platform. As members of the
Intel Storage Community and Managed Developers Program, ATTO worked
closely with Intel to design our host adapters to take advantage of
the innovative performance of the 64-bit dual-core Intel Xeon
Processor and achieve immediate market delivery.
"As we have always done in the Apple market, ATTO has taken the
lead and is the only vendor to deliver multiprotocol support for
Apple's Mac on Intel Platform. Apple customers can now choose from
a full spectrum of high performance adapters for SCSI, Fibre
Channel or SAS environments," states Ed Tierney, director of
marketing for ATTO.
ATTO's ExpressPCI UL5D is a dual-channel host adapter that
combines four lane PCI Express technology and Ultra320 speeds for
high-performance environments and applications such as high
definition video, special effects rendering and nonlinear
editing.
Moving data at express speeds without bottlenecks is ensured
with the ATTO Celerity single, dual and quad channel host adapters.
The combination of PCI-Express and 4-Gigabit Fibre Channel
technologies enables applications such as high definition video
editing, 2K digital production and transactional environments such
as databases to take advantage of the 800 MB/sec. per channel
throughput performance. Featuring ATTO's exclusive ADS(TM)
Technology, large blocks of data move faster and more efficiently
on the PCI bus than any other host adapter on the market.
ATTO Technology's line of SAS/SATA RAID adapters incorporates
two next generation technologies; Serial Attached SCSI and PCI
Express. Delivering blazing-fast transfer rates of up to 2.4
GB/sec., the ATTO ExpressSAS RAID adapter is the first product in a
new line of RAID adapters. ATTO's exclusive DVRAID, is capable of
handling the most demanding applications such as 2K and 4K film,
multiple layers of complex, uncompressed real-time effects, and
high definition video editing while adding parity data protection
to SAS/SATA storage devices.
"ATTO's complete line of SCSI, Fibre Channel and SAS adapters
will ensure the throughput required for handling massive media
files without bottlenecks. ATTO Technology will continue to set the
standard for high-performance adapters and will continue to deliver
industry-leading Macintosh solutions that meet our customers'
performance expectations and aggressive time-to-market
requirements," states Ed Tierney, director of marketing for
ATTO.
Link: ATTO
Technology
Intel Teams with Top Universities for
Software-Related Research
PR: Intel Corporation has announced a global effort to
prepare university students for a new paradigm of software
development as Intel transitions its processors from
single-processor engines to ones that will have multiple cores and
threads. This evolution will transform software design and require
entirely new thinking and innovation in order to leverage this kind
of processing power.
As part of its higher education program, Intel is providing 45
of the world's top universities with expertise, funding,
development tools, educational materials, on-site training and
sustained collaboration with Intel to incorporate multicore and
multithreading concepts into their computer science curricula.
By the end of this year, Intel expects more than 75 percent of
its mainstream server, desktop and laptop PC processors to ship as
dual-core processors; with four-, eight- and many-cores on the
horizon.
"To usher in a new generation of computing technology and bring
creative new products to market, it's crucial to educate tomorrow's
software developers to architect, develop and debug the next
generation of software for modern, multicore platforms," said Renee
James, corporate vice president and general manager of Intel's
Software and Solutions Group. "The full potential of multicore
based systems to deliver great performance and expanded usages is
unleashed when software is designed to take advantage of the full
capabilities of the machine. Working with the world's best
universities, Intel is creating the future for performance
computing."
Universities participating in the worldwide effort include
Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, Georgia Institute
of Technology, University of Michigan and University of Washington,
as well as leading academic institutions across Brazil, China,
India, Mexico, Russia, Taiwan and several European countries. The
first courses will be offered during the fall term this year and
Intel expects hundreds more universities to participate in 2007 and
beyond.
"Intel's support in multicore education is critical for two
reasons," said Karsten Schwan, professor of College of Computing,
Georgia Institute of Technology. "First, getting early access to
advanced technology and new equipment is something that always
excites students. Second, companies like Intel have a perspective
that looks beyond research to see the broader potential for
technology."
The curriculum provides an introduction to Intel multicore
architecture and teaches computer science students how to achieve
maximum performance of their programs on threaded, multicore and
multiprocessor systems using Intel compilers and threading tools.
It also covers the importance of parallelism, threading concepts,
threading methodology and programming with threads (Windows,
OpenMP, PThreads).
Included in the endeavor are faculty training sessions delivered
by Intel Software College multithreading experts from around the
world. Intel also provides course materials, laptops powered by
dual-core processors for instructor use in the classroom, as well
as licenses for Intel Software Development Products and access to
forums and technical support.
This effort is part of the Intel Software College and the Intel
Higher Education Program.
