After the WWDC 2013 reveal of the upcoming Mac Pro on Monday I've been mulling over where I've seen such a design before.   Initially it reminded me of the K-Mart bass tube I had behind the seat in my 1987 Pontiac Fiero in high school - but there was something missing.   After a lengthy discussion with a friend it was determined that Mac Pros are and always have been designed based on kitchen appliances/utensils.

Craziness you say?  Submitted for your approval the prior generation Mac Pro from 2006, whose tower design was in use by G5 Macs even before 2006:


Clearly a cheese grater is an awesome tool and should be the inspiration for design - particularly when a sharp cheddar is involved.   Following down this path, it is not too hard to see where the newly announced Mac Pro's inspiration comes from:

While not quite as blatant as the cheese grater, the coffee maker inspiration can be seen if you squint really hard and dim the brightness on your monitor.

Kitchen nightmares or not, I'd love to get my hands on one of these new bass tube/coffee maker Mac Pros, for now I'll stick with my Macbook Pro and dream of heat dissipating black plastic tubes from the future!