iMac Pro to Begin Shipping December 14 ⇥ macstories.net

John Voorhees, MacStories:

Apple updated its website with news that the iMac Pro is shipping beginning on December 14, 2017. The pro-level iMac features a long list of impressive specifications. The desktop computer, which was announced in June at WWDC comes in 8, 10, and 18-core configurations, though the 18-core model will not ship until 2018. The new iMac can be configured with up to 128GB of RAM and can handle SSD storage of up to 4TB. Graphics are driven with the all-new Radeon Pro Vega, which Apple said offers three times the performance over other iMac GPUs.

Apple provided Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) and another YouTuber, Jonathan Morrison, with review units, and they seem effusively positive, with the exception of some concerns about the machine’s lack of post-purchase upgradability.

Of note, there’s nothing on the iMac Pro webpage nor in either of the review videos about the Secure Enclave that’s apparently in the machine, nor is there anything about an A10 Fusion chip or “Hey, Siri” functionality. These rumours were supported by evidence in MacOS; it isn’t as though the predictions came out of nowhere. It’s possible that these features will be unveiled on Thursday when the iMac Pro becomes available, or perhaps early next year with a software update, but I also haven’t seen any reason for the Secure Enclave — the keyboard doesn’t have a Touch Bar, nor is there Touch ID anywhere on this Mac.

Update: Filmmaker and photographer Vincent Laforet:

I found a very consistent set of results: a 2X to 3X boost in speed (relative to my current iMac and MacBook Pro 15”) a noticeable leap from most generational jumps that are generally ten times smaller.

Whether you’re editing 8K RED video, H.264 4K Drone footage, 6K 3D VR content or 50 Megapixel RAW stills – you can expect a 200-300% increase in performance in almost every industry leading software with the iMac Pro.

Mechanical and aerospace engineer Craig Hunter:

Most of my apps have around 20,000-30,000 lines of code spread out over 80-120 source files (mostly Obj-C and C with a teeny amount of Swift mixed in). There are so many variables that go into compile performance that it’s hard to come up with a benchmark that is universally relevant, so I’ll simply note that I saw reductions in compile time of between 30-60% while working on apps when I compared the iMac Pro to my 2016 MacBook Pro and 2013 iMac. If you’re developing for iOS you’ll still be subject to the bottleneck of installing and launching an app on the simulator or a device, but when developing for the Mac this makes a pretty noticeable improvement in repetitive code-compile-test cycles.

These are massive performance gains, even at the 10-core level; imagine what the 18-core iMac Pro is going be like. And then remember that this isn’t the Mac Pro replacement — it’s just a stopgap while they work on the real Mac Pro replacement.

Update: Rene Ritchie says that the A10 Fusion SoC is, indeed, present in the iMac Pro, albeit rebranded as a T2 coprocessor.