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Apples upcoming Mac Pro is expected to come with Apple Silicon, PCI-E GPUs

What Apple refers to as a "kickslot," which appears to be little more than a PCI-E slot, might be used by a graphics card and can be either internal or external to the computer.

Edited By: Priya Singh | Published By: Priya Singh | Published: Feb 20, 2023, 02:13 PM (IST)

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Tech giant Apple’s future Mac Pro will reportedly feature Apple Silicon and PCI-E graphics processing units (GPUs). One feature that Apple Silicon Macs lack compared to Intel Macs is the option to use GPUs in external enclosures across Thunderbolt or internally in a Mac Pro, reports AppleInsider. news Also Read: Apple iPad Pro Launched In India With New M5 Chip, Ultra Retina XDR Display: Price, Specs

Apple might use Apple Silicon in the upcoming Mac Pro

The majority of Mac users might not be concerned about it, but for some people, particularly Mac Pro buyers, it is a major problem. news Also Read: Apple Launches 14-inch MacBook Pro With M5 Chip And Up To 24-Hour Battery Life: Check Price And Availability

However, now, a set of four recently discovered patent filings seem to indicate that Apple is at least thinking about this problem. news Also Read: iPhone 13 vs iPhone 14 vs iPhone 15: Best Deal To Grab This Diwali Under Rs 50000

“Given their growing compute capabilities, graphics processing units (GPUs) are now being used extensively for large-scale workloads,” the tech giant mentioned in the patent application.

“Application programming interfaces (APIs) such as Metal and OpenCI give software developers an interface to access the compute power of the GPU for their applications,” it added.

The iPhone maker also mentioned that “in recent times, software developers have been moving substantial portions of their applications to using the GPU.”

The company used the term “kick” to refer to the type of discrete unit of graphics work that a GPU might perform.

It further mentioned that there is a problem getting these kicks to the appropriate GPUs.

What Apple refers to as a “kickslot,” which appears to be little more than a PCI-E slot, might be used by a graphics card and can be either internal or external to the computer.

“There could be two or more of these, with macOS switching between them,” the report said.

–With inputs from IANS