Apple publishes Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR technology deep dives

Apple has made two incredibly thorough white papers available today covering the Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR. These “Technology Overview” documents highlight the inner workings of both of Apple’s newest pro-grade pieces of hardware.

In the Mac Pro Technology Overview, which is dated February 2020, Apple details everything you need to know about the tower machine. There are details on architecture, the physical enclosure, different configuration options, and much more. There are also detailed images and graphics with annotations.

For instance, here’s what Apple says about the custom Afterburner card in the Mac Pro:

Afterburner was designed to enable camera native files to be used throughout the workflow without the need for proxies. It does this by offloading the decoding of all flavors of the ProRes video codec, including ProRes 422HQ, ProRes 4444, ProRes XQ, and ProRes RAW, with the exception of interleaved formats that are currently decoded strictly in software, and the final debayer of ProRes RAW images that are done on the GPU.

Meanwhile, the Pro Display XDR Technology Overview covers many of the same categories. There are details on reference modes, the key features, the enclosure design, and much more. Again, there are numerous detailed graphics and images throughout the paper.

Here’s what Apple says about the nano-texture Pro Display XDR:

A nano-texture version of the cover glass is also available for professionals
who have to work in less controlled lighting environments and prefer a display
with further reduced glare. The textured surface is produced via an etching process to create nanostructures on the glass. The result is an innovative matte finish that effectively scatters light reflections for less perceived glare, while minimizing impact to sharpness, color, and contrast.

You can find the full Mac Pro Technology Overview document right here and the Pro Display XDR document here. Both are incredibly detailed, so be sure to settle in for some extensive reading.