Apple may unleash a refreshed, more powerful Mac Pro in the near future, as code discovered in the official version of its new operating system reveals a new workstation designed for power users and professionals may be in the works.
Mac user Pike's Universum unearthed the code buried deep in a plist file used for OS X El Capitan. While the code reveals pretty much no information, the file does reference a Mac identified as AAPLJ95,1, a machine that comes with a whopping 10 USB 3.0 ports. The model number also appears very close to the current-generation Mac Pro, which was first identified as AAPLJ90,1 in a Geekbench result also discovered by Pike.
"You may remember this Geekbench result back in the day, the first public appearance of the 2013 Mac Pro, and I found a similar (AAPLJ95,1) model identifier in El Capitan," says Pike.
The data for the alleged new Mac Pro is nearly identical to the 2015 iMac, which is also in the same file. The difference, however, is that the XHCI data for the newest iMac is also present, leading Pike to believe that a different machine is in the works. The presence of 10 USB ports also eliminates the possibility of a new MacBook Pro or Mac mini, since their smaller form factors can only accommodate up to four USB ports, the same number of ports found in the new iMac.
"And like I said earlier in the comments, there are too many USB 3.0 ports defined to fit on a MacBook (Pro) and Mac mini," says Pike. "This and the fact that there is already support for newer graphics chips baked into El Capitan... is why I think that it was added for a new Mac Pro. I personally sure hope so."
It has been two years since Apple gave the Mac Pro a makeover. The existing machine, which starts at $2,999, runs on a 3.7 GHz Intel Xeon quad-core processor with a Dual AMD FirePro D300 GPU. It has four USB 3.0 ports and six Thunderbolt 2 ports, which may soon be replaced by another six USB 3.0 ports on the refreshed model, if speculations are proven true. Until then, however, treat everything you read with a grain of salt.
