Rumor: Apple manufacturing 2TB SSDs bound for upcoming Mac Pro

The current Mac Pro with four 3.5" drive bays highlighted in red. | Source: Apple

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.