[Walter Soyka] "You're saying there's no need for growth of serious computational power on the Mac platform, because the users don't want it or need it -- which is fundamentally the same small thinking exemplified by what Bill Gates (never) said about memory layout on the PC platform. "
"Growth of serious computational power" doesn't require dual-socket towers. Dual-socket is, at best, a way to get twice the performance -- which you'd get with a single-socket machine ~24 months later anyway. It puts you a generation ahead at considerable extra cost (not in Apple's tower lineup, because their single-socket model isn't very attractively priced, but in general), but it's not like single-socket machines aren't also getting faster.
Basically, I'm not arguing that there won't be future applications that want 10, 100 or 1000 times as much CPU power as today's apps, which is the implication of the other quotes you mention. I think there will be such apps, sooner or later. But as mainstream hardware gets faster, the benefits of spending lots of extra money for higher-performance marginally mainstream hardware (like the Mac Pro) recede. And eventually that marginally mainstream hardware is no longer mainstream at all. Apple makes mainstream hardware. When the Mac Pro crosses this line, Apple will stop making it.
--
Digital Workflow/Colorist,
Nice Dissolve.
You should follow me on Twitter
here. Or read our
blog.
