Back in 2019 — two years into the first Trump administration — Apple released the third generation of the “cheese grater” Mac Pro.

It took the machine’s specs to the max.

Starting at just under $5,000, the new Mac Pro sported a redesign that updated the distinctive cheese grater facade.

It was based on a 28-core Xeon processor from Intel, and featured a six-channel memory architecture with 12 physical DIMM slots.

You could max it out with an incredible 1.5TB of RAM, the most ever available in a Mac.

When Apple transitioned to its homegrown Apple silicon processors in 2020, that kind of RAM expandability ended.

But these days, RAM proves more important than ever. It’s perhaps more essential for some tasks than raw chip speed.

As a result, Apple appears to be blowing up its internal development timetables to rush out new, RAM-centric designs. Here’s why.

Plus, here are more details about Apple’s chip shakeup and what it means for the M6 processor family.

Also in today’s newsletter:

— Leander Kahney, EIC.

A message from the Cult of Mac Deals team

A message from the Cult of Mac Deals team

Cult of Mac’s buyback program

A message from Lindy

Lindy texts you a meeting brief before every call: who you're meeting, what you discussed last time, what's still open. 1 minute setup. Try it free

Tweets of the day

Wallpaper of the day

One more thing ...

The organization is clean and simple to understand, and very accountable. Everything just got simpler. That's been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.

— Steve Jobs, 1998.

Today’s poll

Who's installing the iOS 27 public beta when it arrives?

Login or Subscribe to participate

Results from last Friday’s poll:

Best reader comments

Subscribe to The Weekender — Get the week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.

Reply

Avatar

or to participate

More From Capital