New iMac Pro to pack both ARM and Intel Xeon CPUs

There’s been plenty of buzz about Apple’s supercharged iMac Pro since it was revealed earlier this month, and now the grapevine claims that this pricey all-in-one will run with Intel’s latest server-grade processors (as opposed to consumer-targeted CPUs) coupled with an ARM coprocessor.

Pike's Universum uncovered this interesting info when digging around in the firmware files for the iMac Pro (in the latest beta of macOS), where there are references to the machine being powered by Intel’s Xeon server-class processors from the Purley platform.

In other words, the iMac will be driven by Skylake-EX and Skylake-EP processors sitting in Intel’s LGA3647 socket, as opposed to desktop CPUs nestled in a LGA2066 socket.

Of course, that’s a major switch in philosophy for the iMac range, but then this is a totally different kind of all-in-one for Apple, with the price tag indicating that it’s truly a machine aimed at the professional and creative market. Yes, in case you somehow missed it, the iMac Pro starts at $4,999 (around £3,930, AU$6,600).

The all-in-one will also have powerful AMD Radeon Vega graphics, boasting 11 teraflops of single precision compute performance, with up to 128GB ECC memory and 4TB SSD storage. So you can start to see where that price tag is coming from…

Slick security

Pike's Universum also spotted that the iMac Pro will sport a Security Enclave Processor (SEP), the aforementioned ARM coprocessor as seen on the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, tightening security and supporting a feature called Apple SecureBoot.

The blog also speculates that the iMac Pro could eventually support a Magic Keyboard with Touch Bar (or Touch ID fingerprint sensor), but that really is pure speculation.

Indeed, regarding all of these revelations, it’s a good idea to get the salt shaker out and indulge in a liberal sprinkling of the white stuff. However, it shouldn’t be long before we hear more concrete details on the iMac Pro, as the computer is expected to launch in December, which is only six months away now.

Via: 9 to 5 Mac