Stan's List

Mellanox’s 40Gb/s InfiniBand technology is part of the equation. VT has replaced their G5’s, possibly out of economics especially if Apple has had anything to do with it. The cluster is quite impressive. Even a fraction of it would compliment most science and math departments.

The new system consists of 324 Apple® Mac® Pro Servers with the total of 2592 CPU cores efficiently connected with ConnectX® 40Gb/s InfiniBand adapters and InfiniScale® IV switches, and 40Gb/s copper cables from Amphenol and W.L. Gore & Associates. The system’s performance is ranked among the Top 100 systems of the June 2008 Top500 list of supercomputers. CHECS will be leveraging the system and the new InfiniBand capabilities of congestion control and adaptive routing for expanding high-end computing research activities, in particular in the areas of power aware systems, transparent distributed shared memory systems and high-performance distributed storage systems.

The move to Intel processors brought along many hardware similarities with their now PC brethren. One advantage not always available in PPC Macs is overclocking. Previously overclocking often involved unsoldering and soldering transistors or timing crystals on the motherboard. This, unsurprisingly, created the CPU upgrade market.

Overclocking has been a staple in the PC world nearly since the beginning. Motherboards are often judged on their ability to be overclocked. ZDNet (Germany) has the first such tool for the Mac Pro. All done in software, it is an easy way to boost memory frequency, front side bus and CPU speeds:

ZDNet uses three Mac Pros as test machines. One comes from the first Intel/Mac Pro generation (Mac Pro 1.1) with 65-nanometer processors and 1333-MHz front side bus. The others come from the third generation with 45-nanometer processors and 1600-MHz front side bus, as sold by Apple since January 2008 (Mac Pro 3.1). The first computer is equipped with two 2.66 GHz X5355 processors, and runs stable at 3.10 GHz, see figure 2. The other two have two 2.80 GHz E5462 processors. These can be overclocked up to 3.24 GHz and remain stable.

All PPC Macs are not left out in the cold. If your Mac has an ATI video card, such as a Radeon 9800 Pro or a Radeon X800 XT or before, there is ATIccelerator II. The big advantage over the previous Graphiccelerator is that ATIccelerator does not flash the video cards ROM. Only the latest Radeon X1600 and X1900 cards are not supported.

ATIccelerator II can change ATI graphics cards frequencies live, on-the-fly, under Mac OS X. It’s much more sophisticated and convenient to use than Graphiccelerator for the following reasons:

* no potentially dangerous flashing required
* no cumbersome three-steps process (dump, modify, then reflash ROM)
* no need to reboot for every frequency change
* no OS 9 required (that’s right, G5s and other recent OS 9-free Macs are now supported!)

Pro Applications Update 2008-01 improves reliability for Apple’s professional applications and is recommended for all users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Server, Logic Studio, and Shake.

Pro Applications Update 2008-01 is a revision to Final Cut Studio 2.0. This update includes Final Cut Pro 6.0.3, Compressor 3.0.3, which addresses specific customer issues, installation issues, compatibility updates, general performance issues and improves overall stability.

The MacBook Air Bluetooth Firmware Update 1.0 should be installed on all MacBook Air Systems. Please refer to the MBA Firmware Update page for instructions.

This update fixes several issues to improve the stability of Mac Pro (Early 2008) computers.

After the firmware is successfully applied to your computer, your BootROM Version will be: MP31.006C.B05

Mac Pro (Early 2008): Dongle may not be recognized

Mac Pro: How to reset the System Management Controller (SMC)

Mac Pro & Mac mini Fast Start: The New User’s Guide to the Mac

Mac Pro (Early 2008): NetBoot client won’t restart with Mac Pro RAID Card

Mac Pro (Early 2008): IRQARB Error reported in 64-bit Microsoft Vista

Mac Pro (Early 2008): Error message when using Send Registration Assistant

Mac Pro (Early 2008): iMovie unexpectedly closes when dragging clips into project

Mac Pro (Early (2008) Optimizing your Mac Pro for acoustical performance

Mac Pro: Noise, pops or clicks heard when monitoring a live recording 

Apple announces new Mac Pros are available, one week before Macworld. Might mean there is something special to be announced, as this speed bump is worth its own stage. Hope everyone is on board.

The standard 8-core Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of $2,799 (US), includes:

• two 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors with dual-independent 1600 MHz front side buses;
• 2GB of 800 MHz DDR2 ECC fully-buffered DIMM memory, expandable up to 32GB;
• ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT with 256MB of GDDR3 memory;
• 320GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
• 16x SuperDrive™ with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
• two PCI Express 2.0 slots and two PCI Express slots;
• Bluetooth 2.0+EDR; and
• ships with Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse.

In addition to the standard configuration, the Mac Pro offers numerous build-to-order options including: one 2.8 GHz, two 3.0 GHz, or two 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors; up to 32GB of 800 MHz DDR2 fully-buffered ECC memory; up to four 1TB Serial ATA hard drives running at 7200 rpm or up to four 300GB SAS drives running at 15000 rpm; Mac Pro RAID card; up to two 16x SuperDrives with double-layer support; NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT or NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 graphics cards; AirPort Extreme 802.11n; Apple USB Modem; Apple wireless Aluminum Keyboard.

A 2.3 GHz 8-core Mac Pro with four 500 GB hard drives (2TB), NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB (Two dual-link DVI), wireless mouse and keyboard. $5,4 comes to $5,499.00, not counting the additional memory.

Apple prices

4GB (4 x 1GB) [Add $500] OWC $230

8GB (4 x 2GB) [Add $1500] OWC $529

16GB (8 x 2GB) [Add $3500] OWC $1,030

16GB (4 x 4GB) [Add $4300] OWC $1,350 (qualified but not certified)

32GB (8 x 4GB) [Add $9100] OWC $2,650 (qualified but not certified)

And these are not necessarily the best prices, but a darn good reason not to buy from Apple. Other World Computing

The Hard Drive Update 1.0 includes bug fixes and important updates for the following systems: iMac Core 2 Duo (Mac OS X 10.4.7 or later) and Mac Pro (Mac OS X 10.4.7 or later)

To complete the firmware update process, please follow the instructions in the updater application (/Applications/Utilities/Hard Drive Update 1.0.app). The updater will launch automatically when the Installer closes.

The update may state it is not required, as it is not for all iMacs or Mac Pros that would appear to qualify.

AppleInsider: For the second time in as many years, Mac maker Apple Inc. is awaiting the official nod from chip supplier Intel Corp. before announcing a brawny update to its Mac Pro workstations aimed at media professionals.

Firmware Restoration CD 1.4
The Firmware Restoration CD is used to restore the firmware of an Intel-based Macintosh computer.

iMac EFI Firmware Update 1.2
This update improves the performance and reliability of Intel Core 2 Duo processors and fixes issues with Boot Camp for iMac computers.

Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.2
This EFI Firmware Update fixes several fan behavior and Boot Camp issues on Mac Pro computers.

MacBook EFI Firmware Update 1.1
This update improves the performance and reliability of Intel Core 2 Duo processors and fixes issues with Boot Camp for MacBook computers.

MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.4
This update improves the performance and reliability of Intel Core 2 Duo processors and fixes issues with Boot Camp for MacBook Pro computers.

Xserve EFI Firmware Update 1.0
This update is recommended for all Xserve users and improves the performance and reliability of Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors.

There are important installation instructions on the web page that must be read.

According to Apple,

The SMC Firmware Update adjusts fan behavior in the Mac Pro.

After this update has completed successfully, your SMC Version will be:
1.7f10 (Mac Pro)
1.5f3 (Mac Pro 8-core)