Apple last night at WWDC announced a new Mac Pro with a radically redesigned chassis and a new set of specifications. We'll be updating this story as new information becomes apparent, but here is what we know of the new Mac Pro's release date, specifications and price in the UK.

New Mac Pro release date in the UK

We don't have a specific UK release date for the new Mac Pro computer. Indeed, all we know is that Apple intends to release the new Mac Pro globally later this year. With consumer products that usually means out late summer or early Autumn in order to hit the pre-Christmas sales rush. But the Mac Pro is a business tool, so all we can say is that Apple tends not to announce things a long time before they launch - so expect the new Mac Pro sooner rather than later. We'll update this feature as soon as we have a new Mac Pro UK release date. Now read on for new Mac Pro specifications, design, and price in the UK (click all the images to see them at full size). See also: Group test: what's the best power PC?

New Mac Pro specifications

This is where things get impressive. Let's take a look at the Mac Pro's components:

New Mac Pro: processors

The new Mac Pro is built around new generation Intel Xeon E5 Ivy Bridge processors. This Intel chip boasts up to 12 cores. It offers double the CPU performance of the current generation of Xeon processors, according to Intel.

New Mac Pro: graphics

You'll also get third-generation PCI Express architecture, but the graphics cards you use require a unique design to fit in the system and properly marry its components to the triangular unified thermal core at the centre of the new Mac Pro. So GPU upgradability is in Apple's hands. Those graphics boards will be dual AMD FirePro workstation-class GPUs, able to run up to three 4K displays at once.

New Mac Pro: memory

That lack of ability to upgrade is not replicated in the case of RAM. The Mac Pro will use fast RAM - 1.866MHz ECC DDR3 RAM to be exact - and it is upgradable. Apple has stuck with the traditional RAM slots, and provides four slots for adding more RAM modules to the system. OS X Mavericks supports addressing up to 128GB of RAM, so in principle at least you could add up to that much RAM. The likelihood is that space issues will preclude this, of course.

New Mac Pro: storage

The Mac Pro eschews HDDs in favour of SSDs. Apple is outfitting the new Mac Pro with PCIe-based flash memory. There's no mention yet of what storage options will be offered, and expect the drives used to be bespoke Apple storage devices, again limiting your potential to upgrade. Finally, don't expect an optical drive in the Mac Pro.

New Mac Pro: ports

The new Mac Pro will four USB 3.0 ports, six Thunderbolt 2 ports, two Gigabit Ethernet ports and HDMI out. But expect a relative lack of expansion slots - the previous Mac Pro had a pair of 16-lane PCI Express 2.0 slots and two 4-lane PCI Express 2.0 slots. But Apple is expecting Mac Pro users to daisychain expansion devices via Thunderbolt.

New Mac Pro design

This we can tell you all about. The new Mac Pro is a stunning looking device, differing dramatically from the now discontinued Mac Pro's aluminium tower design (a design that is, after all, 10 years old). The new Mac Pro has a black, cylindrical design. It looks like a sleek tube, to be frank. A sleek, tiny tube: at just over 25cm tall it is around one eighth of the size of the previous Mac Pro.

The cylindrical design is not just for show, however. Apple says that it represents a 'unified thermal core' that will help with cooling. Critical on a power PC. And the smaller size and included carrying handle means the new Mac Pro is relatively easy to carry around. This could prove to be a key differentiator in a world in which some form of portability is increasingly important.

The Mac Pro also has a motion sensor - when you turn it around the I/O panel on the back lights up.

It's also worth noting that it is made of polished aluminium.

New Mac Pro price in the UK

Apple hasn't yet announced pricing for the Mac Pro. However, we can make some safe assumptions (and you can check back to see how wrong we were!) For one thing the Mac Pro won't be cheap. This is a professional tool for professional Mac workers, and the components are costly. Apple charges a premium for premium products.

But Apple also likes to keep things simple, and it rarely hikes up prices for new products. So expect the new Mac Pro to come in at a similar price to the previous model, starting somewhere between £2,000- and £2,500 inc VAT, but potentially climbing up to £3,500 or more depending on the optional bells and whistles you go for.

We'll update this section as soon as we have official pricing information.