Apple exec shares background on designing Mac Studio and Studio Display I/O, cooling, and more

Three Apple executives shared some interesting details about how the company went about developing the design and functionality of the Mac Studio and Studio Display.

TechCrunch’s Matthew Panzarino sat down with Apple’s Tom Boger, vice president of product marketing for Mac and iPad, Shelly Goldberg, senior director of product design for Mac and iPad, and Xander Soren, director of product marketing for Pro Apps.

One theme Panzarino noticed is that Mac Studio and Studio Display are an explicit product of the Apple Pro Workflows team, first appearing when it was used in the modular 2019 Mac Pro. A key part of the team's process is "interacting with and gathering information from professionals in creative, scientific, and other fields to better understand their workflows."

Feedback from users was the driving force behind Apple's creation of Mac Studio The reason for the new product category:

In our discussion, Soren noted that its creative and pro users sent a clear signal that a module between the iMac and Mac Pro was needed system. Modular, in this sense, consists of the Mac Studio offering two levels of M1 chips and the paired Studio Display.

Apple's I/O decisions for Mac Studio are another key area that requires feedback from pro users:

The number of ports available on Mac Studio was determined through consultation with its pro customers It comes from doing research, talking to them, asking how many devices they are using. To be honest, the USB-A option surprised me a bit, but Boger says their research shows there's still a legacy need.

When it came to designing a cooling system within the size constraints of the Mac Studio, Shelly Goldberg said it was a "huge effort" when the Mac Pro had lots of fans and ventilation space.

Interestingly, Apple ran hundreds of different thermal simulations to find the right design. The final Mac Studio design features 2,000 precisely machined holes.

It's a very interesting challenge from a hardware perspective because we're trying to deliver such tremendous performance but are really limited by the form factor," Goldberg said. "Obviously, If you're going to have it on your desk, you don't want it to bother you while you're doing all of these things. So it was a very interesting challenge from a hardware perspective, and the team did hundreds of thermal simulations of airflow to try to figure out the best airflow pattern through the system to try to optimize performance and acoustics, and ultimately, we wanted to Out of our design the access at the bottom is through over 2,000 machined holes that are all machined at [specific] angles that rotate as you go around the perimeter. Another unique part of the thermal design is the custom dual blowers: Goldberg said the engineering team found that by positioning each impeller of the blower at its height, Split in half, they're able to adjust using discs, allowing for different spacing of the blades above and below the divider.

This allows Apple to optimize for both heat dissipation and acoustics - even on heavy duty Mac Studio is also as quiet as possible under workload.

Speaking of the new Studio Display, Apple’s Boger described it as “a great, easy-to-use display for all of us Mac users.” using, very mainstream monitors.”

Goldberg emphasized that the new Spatial Audio system is a first for desktop systems.

Goldberg said that the Spatial Audio system in Studio Display also utilizes introduced the force-canceling drivers they built for the 16-inch MacBook Pro, a first for a desktop audio system. These specialized drivers provide internal, opposing forces to dampen unwanted vibrations, acting as shock absorbers to prevent speaker cones from cracking. The vibrations propagate into the housing.

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