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Apple Silicon Mac Pro concept imagines open-air expansion slots

An Apple Silicon Mac Pro concept provides an unusual take on one of the most controversial aspects of the two most recent designs – should expansion units sit inside or outside the machine?

The trashcan design dismayed many when it offered little scope for internal expansion, and required most accessories to sit outside the casing.

Apple fixed that in the current model, but in a possible nod to Steve Jobs’ idea that the inside of a machine should look neat even if no one would ever see it, Apple opted for some of the expansion units – like GPUs – to get their own sleek-looking enclosures.

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Designer Antonio De Rosa riffed on that with a kind of hybrid approach, where the expansion modules sit out in the open – but inside their own casings, and still within the footprint of the machine. He illustrates this with both Apple Silicon GPUs and internal drives.

The front of the machine also brings back memories of the original Macintosh, right down to USB-C ports and SD card slot disguised as a floppy disk drive slot.

You can see more renders, and a video, below. I’m guessing most Mac Pro fans are going to hate it, but you have to give De Rosa points for, uh, thinking outside the box.

What are you expecting from the first Apple Silicon Mac Pro? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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