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Intel Launches Xeon E5 v4 Family of Processors Based On Broadwell-EP (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: Intel is officially launching a brand new series of Xeon processors today, the Xeon Processor E5 v4. The Xeon Processor E5 v4 family is based on Broadwell, specifically Broadwell-EP, though they are socket compatible with the previous generation v3 series. The new Xeon E5 v4 family, however, features a number of updates and enhancements. The Broadwell-EP based Xeon E5 v4, for example, is built using Intel's more advanced 14nm process node, and the largest chips can feature up to 22 processor cores (44 threads). The E5 v4 series still supports up to quad-channel DDR4 memory, but the maximum supported speed now tops out at 2400 MT/s, up from 2133 MT/s. Also, because of its additional cores, the E5-2600 v4 series now features up to 55MB of last-level cache. Support for 3D die-stacked LRDIMMs has been added too, along with DDR4 write CRC, and of course the higher speeds. Performance with a 2P dual-socket Xeon E5-2697 v4 system, with 36 total cores and 72 threads, rips through Cinebench in testing, unlike any desktop chip could. It's impressive to see in action.
The Mac Pro is now ridiculously stale. ("Days since last release: 833")
I've read articles speculating that Apple might be re-designing the Mac Pro again as many of its intended users are disappointed that it has no internal expansion at all. So Apple could be sitting on a design refresh, waiting for these new chips.
I even read speculation that Apple would cancel the Mac Pro product line, but IMHO that is very unlikely. Apple sells a lot more notebooks than Mac Pros, but I just can't see Apple walking away from a very high-margin product.
So now that there are refreshed Xeons, maybe we will see a refreshed Mac Pro.
P.S. I was surprised that Apple didn't release a standard enclosure for lots of hard drives or whatever. You should have your Mac Pro and then one box with one cord, rather than a half-dozen boxes and a half-dozen cords. But I guess Apple left that for third parties such as Sonnet. I watched the video for that Sonnet product I linked... it said that Sonnet followed Apple's guidelines for how to best mount a Mac Pro. Therefore, Apple has guidelines for third party vendors for Mac Pro mounting products.
Even so, it's amazing how complicated the Sonnet enclosure has to be to solve the problem. Thunderbolt connectors can pop out, so they invented a retaining device that uses a bolt to keep the plug in. You need to run multiple Thunderbolt cables inside the box. And they said they were not able to offer a passthrough for Thunderbolt because Thunderbolt won't work with one (they didn't elaborate, something about needing active circuits on both ends of the connection, but I don't know why that rules out a passthrough).
And oh boy is that an expensive way to go: buy an expensive Mac Pro, then spend another $1500 on the enclosure.
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
A long term stable distribution might fit your needs better than a bleeding-edge distro like Fedora. For example Red Hat 6 (aka CentOS) doesn't have systemd and it will get security updates for eight more years. It will get updates for new hardware and other general updates through 2020, four more years.