Intel announces 'Purley' Xeon processors, possibly destined for Apple's iMac Pro

[kristine]

Intel has taken the wraps off of its Purley series of Xeon processors, and it appears that there are a few candidates for possible processors that could be included in Apple's iMac Pro, slated to launch this December.

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Intel revealed 50 different Xeon chips on Tuesday, and in doing so replaced the older E5 and E7 lines built on the Haswell architecture. While the new chips are aimed at the data center, the Xeon chips in the Mac Pro line were as well.

What specific chips will be used?

Intel has grouped the chips by two different sets of criteria —one precious metal themed, and the other ranging from best performance to most energy efficient. Presumably, for a computer intended for raw performance, Apple will use either chips balanced for power efficiency and performance, or the highest performance chips possible.

The 10-year processors, and the Omni-Path Architecture chips are likely not suitable for workstations, and are not included.

Why Purley, and not existing Xeon processors?
Purley has been Intel's codename for its architecture meant for processors destined for high-intensity tasks like those found in data centers, rather than for the relatively smaller work loads of single-user desktops. A core feature of Purley processors is its use of a mesh-based architecture that replaces the ring architecture Intel has used in its Xeon processors for the last eight years, with the switch aimed at decreasing latency in systems with many processors and cores.

Purley effectively allows for up to 28 cores to run on a single LGA3647 motherboard socket, with support for up to 8 sockets to work together in the same computer —which may have implications for the future Mac Pro. This inter-core connectivity lends itself to computationally intensive tasks, including artificial intelligence, simulations, encryption, and other high-demand applications.

While the iMac Pro will use Mail, and iTunes fine, that use case is really not the point of the machine.