AppleInsider Staff
A fresh rumor holds that Apple may be producing self-branded large capacity solid state drives for use in the next Mac Pro, the company's professional level tower that is said to be getting a refresh later this year.
According to Bright Side of News*, a blog covering the semiconductor industry, a visit to Far East suppliers purportedly revealed a first-batch run of a 2TB solid state drives emblazoned with the familiar Apple logo, prompting speculation that the Cupertino company may include the component into a high-end desktop like the Mac Pro.
It should be noted that AppleInsider is unable to vouch for the veracity of the publication's statements and offers the following information for purposes of discussion only.
The capacious SSDs were reportedly spotted during a factory tour for a "completely unrelated subject," and further information regarding the drives is scarce.
"But seeing a 2TB Solid State Drive with an Apple logo on it opens very large ground for speculation," the report says. "Given that we were not able to learn more about the parts in question, we have to leave it at that."
From what was gathered by the quick look, the SSDs are built on the 3.5-inch form factor with full-height enclosures and boast a standard Serial-ATA connector. If legitimate, the drives would be placed directly in Apple's high-end desktop category, as the new iMacs switched to smaller 2.5-inch laptop drives to save space.
Currently, the Mac Pro can be configured with up to 8TB of storage in the form of four 2TB 7200-rpm hard drives, though solid state options top out at 512GB. The tower eschews the use of cables by utilizing a direct attachment system, with each 3.5-inch bay located above SATA slots on the logic board.
Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed in an email last year that the Mac Pro, which has not seen a major design overhaul in years, would be getting an update sometime in 2013. Most recently, Apple stopped European sales of its pro-level tower in February, as the computer's fan blades are incompatible with a regulation that recently took effect in the region.
Andrew Orr
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81 Comments
Why would Apple be making SSDs?
Followup: Can I get a bare Apple-branded SSD for less than the cost of my house?
And does Apple branding on drives really mean that Apple made them? I have plenty of hard drives with the Apple logo on them; that doesn't mean Apple made them.
And for clarity's sake, this is the 'from Apple' configuration. Anyone can buy four 4TB drives and have 16TB in their Mac Pro right now.
[quote name="Tallest Skil" url="/t/156291/rumor-apple-manufacturing-2tb-ssds-bound-for-upcoming-mac-pro#post_2287720"]Why would [I]Apple[/I] be making SSDs? [/quote] Funny, I said the exact same thing about Intel 5?ish years ago
I don't think for a minute that Apple will be innovative by increasing storage capacity, especially for a desktop computer. IPhone? Yes, I welcomed the 64GB version - with my wallet. But a 2TB SSD - thanks, I'll pass.
I don't quite get what the target market is any more for the Mac Pro. I doubt the revenues are even worth mentioning in financial reports. I imagine they keep some guy from Next around updating this product so they don't have to lay him off
Remember the Anobit purchase! As for Apple "making" the storage modules, it would be contractors no matter what. Either way I expect that Apple will eventually implement Anobits technology into custom storage solutions.
As for cost the whole idea behind buying a company like Anobit is that you can put your own IP into a product and not have to pay for somebody else's profits. There is really no reason for an unaffordable 2TB SSD.
The bigger question that should be asked is does the article make any sense at all. Full height drives went out of production years ago for one. Further it would be totally asinine on Apples part to debut a new Mac Pro architecture and not have the Solid State Storage on a PCI-Express port along with a standard card. It really make no sense at all to put what amounts to a Printed Circuit card into the chassis of yesteryears magnetic drive tech. It is one thing to use SSD in old drive formats to bridge technology but even Apple has given up on that in its laptops.
Given the above and a few other issues i suspect the article is bogus. Or at the very least somebody saw something they didn't understand.
Why would Apple be making SSDs?
Followup: Can I get a bare Apple-branded SSD for less than the cost of my house?
And does Apple branding on drives really mean that Apple made them? I have plenty of hard drives with the Apple logo on them; that doesn't mean Apple made them.