Multiple sources are now aligning on a vision of the next MacBook Pro, expected to be unveiled at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference in June. The new machine is expected to retain the "Pro" moniker, and supposedly won't be a copy of Apple's current MacBook Air. However, it is expected to drop the optical drive and "legacy" FireWire and Ethernet ports, slim down in thickness, and vastly increase screen resolution.

The overall picture of the reported MacBook Pro revision, as detailed by sources for 9to5 Mac, aligns with previous rumors that suggested the MacBook Pro would go on a diet. Apple is expected to slim down the current MacBook Pro by ditching its optical drive—which in the age of the Mac App Store and iTunes downloads is largely becoming vestigial for most users. Taking some cues from the successful MacBook Air, the new MacBook Pro will also rely on a solid state drive for booting. We believe Apple will utilize the tiny SSD modules it designed for the MacBook Air to shave size and weight, though it will likely offer a 2.5" internal bay for optional additional storage (either HDD or SSD). And for upgraders, there is still one company offering additional modules in greater capacities than Apple currently offers.

Apple will undoubtedly be upgrading the MacBook Pro line to Intel's latest Ivy Bridge processors, but the rumored thinner body may prove somewhat challenging for thermal design. This leads us to believe that Apple may standardize on 35W dual-core processors across its MacBook Pro line. There are only a handful of quad-core Ivy Bridge parts available, and most are 45W TDP—that might be pushing things inside a thinner unibody enclosure. However, we do know there is at least one quad-core part—for OEMs only—that tops out at 35W TDP; it seems likely this chip may appear as a build-to-order upgrade.

The basic slim design powered by Ivy Bridge processors was independently corroborated by sources for Bloomberg News.

By virtue of the upgrade to the Ivy Bridge platform, the new MacBook Pro is also expected to support USB 3.0. The new design may have as many as three USB 3.0 ports, which are backwards compatible with USB 2 devices as well.

In a move that may shock some pro users, Apple may be ditching FireWire and Ethernet ports entirely, relying on dual Thunderbolt connectors to handle high-speed storage and networking needs. While some users will no doubt call the move premature, trends have been pointing towards this consolidation of ports for a couple years. WiFi is widely used for networking, even in many enterprise environments, and there are already solutions for connecting Ethernet adapters to both Thunderbolt and USB. And while FireWire is still used widely in pro audio and video circles, vendors have been expanding Thunderbolt storage options as of late. Thunderbolt adapters for FireWire also exist, and more are expected this summer.

Finally, it seems the MacBook Pro may be getting a long-rumored Retina display, according to ABC News. We noted last year that Mac OS X already has the technology, dubbed "HiDPI," built in to adapt the user interface to work with higher pixel densities, and Apple has expanded that support in Mountain Lion. A pixel-doubled, 2880x1800 15.4" display is plausible, resulting in a 220ppi density that would appear as sharp as recent iPhone and iPad models. The HD4000 GPU integrated into Intel's Ivy Bridge processors is capable of driving such a high-resolution display, according to Intel, as is the rumored NVIDIA GTX 650M GPU confirmed to be included in the revised MacBook Pros, according to a source for The Verge.

Still, driving notebook and desktop pixel densities that high may not even be required to achieve a "Retina" effect, as noted by developer David Barnard. Whereas iOS software is highly dependent on the physical size of an iPad or iPhone, OS X's windowed interface offers much more adaptability. "Apple doesn't have to build displays that are exactly 2x current displays—they just have to build displays that work well with OS X when running at 2X," he wrote in March.

The latest spate of rumors seem to focus on the 15" MacBook Pro, and don't mention the 13" or 17" models. Some have suggested that Apple may abandon the 17" MacBook Pro entirely, and it's even possible that Apple could ditch the 13" model in favor of the popular 13" MacBook Air. Such simplification might fit in with Apple's DNA, but we're not sure that such a move is necessary. A 13" MacBook Pro using a design akin to the rumored 15" MacBook Pro revision would still offer some benefits over a 13" Air, in particular concerning storage and raw processing capacity. The 17" MacBook Pro has always strained the definition of portability, but we feel there is still a market for it among video and graphics pros that need "occasional" portability for field work.