On October 22nd Apple announced:
1/ OS X Mavericks 10.9 which includes innovative features to enhance performance and efficiency. These include:
- Compressed Memory (shrinks memory usage and minimises CPU usage)
- App Nap (idles applications into a low-power state
- Timer Coalescing (minimises the system maintenance and background work while your Mac is running on batter power.
Very important to note as of today Avid and Autodesk has not certified Mavericks to run with Media Composer and Smoke. Logic would dictate this is in the works so stay tuned for further detail around this.
2/ New 2013 Mac Pro which is one-eighth the size of the it's predecessor, the 2010 Mac Pro, bit twice as fast. It's coming 'real soon' so get ready. Here is a top level overview:
- Unique cylinder design
- Up to 12 cores of processing power
- Support for 4K resolution displays
- Next Generation PCI Express flash storage
Going into further detail:
- Built into the next generation Mac Pro is USB3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI 1.4, Displayport 1.2 and siz 20Gb/s Thunderbolt 2 ports
- Transfer data between your computer and up to 36 high performance peripherals. For instance you can extend storage devices, PCI expansion chassis, A/V breakout boxes and three 4K video displays.
Lets talk more about expansion via Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt high-speed I/O technology is the fastest, most versatile connection to your host platform (PC and Mac). Thunderbolt specifications:
- Data and display over single wire
- 10Gb bi-directional transfer speeds
- Capability to daisy chain up to 6 devices
- Electrical or optical cable options
Blackmagic, AJA and Atto has already announced products which will support Thunderbolt 2. I will step you through the Atto range in a separate blog.