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Intel announces Mac Pro-class Xeon laptop processors, balancing power and mobility

Mac Pro 21

Intel recently announced plans to bring its professional-class Intel Xeon processors to notebook computers for the first time. The Xeon family of chips is notably only used by Apple in $2,999 and up Mac Pro desktop computers. According to Intel, the high-performance processor will make its way to portable computers starting with processors based on the next-gen Skylake architecture. Specifically, the Xeon E3-1500M v5 family will be the first to bring contemporary workstation power to portable computers, while Intel promises “the right balance of power and mobility” for the upcoming chips. But would Apple ever use Xeon chips in MacBook Pros?

Intel’s blog post didn’t disclose exactly how its Xeon chips destined for portable PCs would handle delivering high performance while maintaining functional battery life, a critical point for Apple. At least maintaining if not improving battery life in MacBooks has been a significant focus for Cupertino over the years, even at the cost of ignoring more powerful CPUs and GPUs.

MacBook Pros already promise fewer hours of run time than less powerful but thinner MacBook Airs, and it’s hard to imagine Intel’s first generation of Xeon chips for portable computers would match the 30% longer battery life coming with new non-Xeon Skylake chips for notebooks.

There’s also the issue of managing heat in a compact notebook when a workstation-class chip is churning out so much power. While Apple hasn’t made its MacBook Pros completely fanless like the 12-inch MacBook — the fan is designed rather prominently into the casing actually — Intel’s new Xeon chips for notebooks could mean more frequent fan activity in general, using more battery power and creating a noisier machine.

Another possibility is that Apple could someday incorporate Intel’s Xeon chips designed for portable PCs in their desktop iMac line of computers, as iMacs are designed as large notebooks. Once battery life is removed from the equation, you could potentially have a Mac Pro-tier all-in-one computer with a Retina display included. iMac Pro anyone?

That Apple has only used Xeon chips in Mac Pros so far would make iMac support a stretch, but Xeon chips intended for notebooks are unexplored territory at this point.

Finally, Intel included in the announcement that its Xeon chips for notebooks will support the upcoming Thunderbolt 3 port, which will use USB-C cables and connectors:

Mobile workstations featuring Intel Xeon will also feature Thunderbolt™ 3– the USB-C that does it all. And if that’s not enough, Intel will also provide certifications for applications in computer-aided design and engineering, and digital content creation.

Would you be compelled to buy a new class of MacBook Pros running Xeon chips designed for mobile? Even at the potential cost of battery life and added heat?

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Comments

  1. iWagsz (@Iwagsz) - 9 years ago

    Maybe, but I would rather have a Mac Mini with the Xeon chip in it.

    • I couldn’t agree more!

    • Rich Davis (@RichDavis9) - 9 years ago

      They have higher power i7’s that outperform the lower end Xeon chips. Xeon’s use the more costly ECC memory, which the higher end workstation, server crowd likes using, but for prosumers, they just want as much speed at the lowest cost and that’s why a lot of the prosumer/gamer market would rather use higher end i7’s. I think Apple should put out headless high end i7’s to fill the gap between the Minis and the Pros. As far as laptops, they might come out with Xeon laptops for the workstation class crowd, but I don’t think they are going to be big sellers if the price is too high. Time will tell if Apple releases them.

    • Justin Grover - 9 years ago

      This feels more “Mac Mini” than “MacBook” to me, as well.

    • Asbjørn Ulsberg - 9 years ago

      I wouldn’t say no to a Xeon iMac.

  2. bradmacpro - 9 years ago

    Apple has used Xeon processors in the past for Mac Pros for two reasons, primarily. They have supported two chip machines which was useful before the current cylindrical Mac Pro and for supporting ECC memory. They also support fast PCIe and plenty of slots and more total memory, so I can see Apple using Xeon in a future 27″ 5K Retina model or perhaps something new. Like a even larger 8K iMac or a much improved Mac mini.

  3. Robert Dupuy - 9 years ago

    well this is bad news… one of the worst things that ever happened to the mac pro line was the Xeon processors.

    That’s because there really isn’t much of a technical difference between Xeon and i7 processors, and though Intel only enables some features with Xeon – even those are of dubious benefit for 99.9% of the workloads.

    A Mac Pro that had regular i7 processors in it, would be a wonderful change.

    Adding Xeon to Apple’s notebook line is completely going in the wrong direction.

    • Rich Davis (@RichDavis9) - 9 years ago

      The two biggest advantages of Xeons are they can do multi-processing, which Apple doesn’t currently do. The other is the use of ECC memory, which the higher end workstation customers typically want because they don’t have as many problems since it’s error correcting and when they are dealing with large amounts of data, they certainly don’t need any problems. The Xeons are just power hungry and generate a lot of heat, which is why they are used in workstations/servers than in laptops.

      I do agree that they should have higher end i7’s that are priced in between the minis and pros. They have 8 core i7’s which are really fast, and those would serve the needs of the prosumers/gamers. But Apple doesn’t have a large gaming crowd due to the lack of titles.

      • Matt (@apple4ever) - 9 years ago

        The other thing they have is a ton of PCI Express lanes. That’s why there is three Thunderbolt buses on the Pro.

        But I would agree- I’d still love a Skylake i7 powered Mac Pro.

  4. jmiko2015 - 9 years ago

    I would say, we’ll see a MacBook Pro 17″ comeback if Apple wanted to use Xeon

  5. modeyabsolom - 9 years ago

    I agree with jmiko2015 the 17″ MacBook Pro form factor would be ideal for a notebook Xeon and it would be nice if Apple did one. But whether such a laptop would be commercially worthwhile for Apple to do, I don’t know.

    • As nice as this sounds they are going to hopefully add the cooling necessary to run such powerful processors in an aluminum cased laptop. I have a MacBook Pro which is a touch old but it runs very hot even when I am not doing anything particularly taxing on it. I could only imagine that adding a similar processor from the Mac Pro would make a MacBook run hotter than an oven. Maybe it is a unique problem for me but I think they should look into that before making them more powerful.

    • taoprophet420 - 9 years ago

      With the new Maxbook design I still think we might see Apple go to 14″ and 16″ for the MacBook Pro.

  6. taoprophet420 - 9 years ago

    Apple uses laptop chips in the iMacs and the retina models would be a good model to include the Xeon chips. With DisplayPort 1.3 the iMacs could get target display back. Hopefully all the updates MacBook Pros and retina IMacs get Zeon chips so they take full advantage of 5k displays and Apple finally release a new monitor.

  7. Right now I’d be 100% happy with either a retina MBA or a lighter rMBP. The rMB is out of the question for reasons of performance + expansion, in my mind it’s a hipster toy rather than a proper laptop. I know that a rMBA is not gonna happen (in the light of the rMB) so I’m counting on a physically-revised rMBP later this year, usb-c and all.

    A Xeon-class rMBP sounds nice but I guess the people who would *really need* the extra power (and the compromises this brings) are too few (and I’m not one of them), and the device would be too expensive for the average prosumer.

  8. Leif Paul Ashley - 9 years ago

    Apple is losing their edge…

  9. Mustapha Ben - 9 years ago

    Intel Xeon + NVIDIA GTX 980M would be awesome!!!!

  10. RentiMac (@rentimacau) - 9 years ago

    Apple have made a habit of naming their immediate next versions of any devices with a new & fancy name. There is a reason why people here are stating they interpret the current version more as Mac-Mini instead of MacBook.

  11. To consolidate my 12 pound PC laptop with it’s 3 pound power supply, my desktop PC with 24GB of ram(and VMs), my aging mac pro 1,1 with upgraded CPUs, my recently deceased MacBook Pro and my interim pc(waiting for skylake) with a single portable computer that weighs under 15 pounds? absolutely.

    My requirements:
    be able to sleep (or hybernate) between wall plugs.
    either take M.2 cards, or a sata HD.
    if it is a laptop, get at least 30 minutes of battery life.

    Some people need a workstation.
    btw nvidia is not updating their video drivers for mac compatibility, ati is a fine alternative.
    The xeon chips usually do not have a GPU, as it is, on desktops, the intel GPU for me is a waste of 2/3 of the chip area.

  12. trajan2448 - 9 years ago

    LOVE IT. PLEASE MAKE A17 inch MBP!!!!!

Author

Avatar for Zac Hall Zac Hall

Zac covers Apple news, hosts the 9to5Mac Happy Hour podcast, and created SpaceExplored.com.