iMac Pro will reportedly have an A10 Fusion coprocessor for ‘Hey, Siri’ support and more secure booting

 

There haven’t been many updates on Apple’s iMac Pro since it was first announced back at WWDC in June. However, over the weekend, news broke from the internet’s favorite Apple firmware gurus Steven Troughton-Smith and Guilherme Rambo that the upcoming pro desktop computer will feature an A10 Fusion coprocessor.

Based on the leaked code, which has been compiled and explained by Jonathan Levin, it seems the A10 Fusion chip will enable two interesting new features. The first is the ability for the iMac Pro to feature always-on “Hey, Siri” voice command support, similar to what’s currently available on more recent iPhone devices. The news seems all but confirmed: Rambo has posted a video of the feature working on a Mac. 

But, as Pepijn Bruienne pointed out, the bigger implication of the A10 Fusion is for a less user-facing function, with Apple likely to use the coprocessor to enable SecureBoot on the iMac Pro. In more practical terms, it means that Apple will be using the A10 Fusion chip to handle the initial boot process and confirm that software checks out, before passing things off to the regular x86 Intel processor in your Mac. 

It’s not something that will likely change how you use your computer too much, like the addition of “Hey, Siri” support will, but it’s a move toward Apple experimenting with an increased level of control over its software going forward. 

The Article was Published on : TheVerge