NeXTstation
Encyclopedia
NeXTstation was a high-end workstation computer
developed, manufactured and sold by NeXT
from 1990 until 1993. It ran the NeXTSTEP
operating system
. The NeXTstation was released as a more affordable alternative to the NeXTcube
at about US $4,995 or about half the price. Several models were produced, including the NeXTstation (25 MHz), NeXTstation Turbo (33 MHz), NeXTstation Color (25 MHz) and NeXTstation Turbo Color (33 MHz). In total, NeXT sold about 50,000 computers (not including sales to government organizations), making the NeXTstation a rarity today.
The NeXTstation came with a NeXT MegaPixel 17" monitor (with built-in speaker
s) and a keyboard and mouse. It was affectionately known as "the slab", since the flat shape contrasted quite sharply with the original NeXT Computer (otherwise known as "the cube").
Workstation
A workstation is a high-end microcomputer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by one person at a time, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems...
developed, manufactured and sold by NeXT
NeXT
Next, Inc. was an American computer company headquartered in Redwood City, California, that developed and manufactured a series of computer workstations intended for the higher education and business markets...
from 1990 until 1993. It ran the NeXTSTEP
NEXTSTEP
NeXTSTEP was the object-oriented, multitasking operating system developed by NeXT Computer to run on its range of proprietary workstation computers, such as the NeXTcube...
operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
. The NeXTstation was released as a more affordable alternative to the NeXTcube
NeXTcube
The NeXTcube was a high-end workstation computer developed, manufactured and sold by NeXT from 1990 until 1993. It superseded the original NeXT Computer workstation and was housed in a similar cube-shaped magnesium enclosure. The workstation ran the NeXTSTEP operating system.- Hardware :The...
at about US $4,995 or about half the price. Several models were produced, including the NeXTstation (25 MHz), NeXTstation Turbo (33 MHz), NeXTstation Color (25 MHz) and NeXTstation Turbo Color (33 MHz). In total, NeXT sold about 50,000 computers (not including sales to government organizations), making the NeXTstation a rarity today.
The NeXTstation came with a NeXT MegaPixel 17" monitor (with built-in speaker
Computer speaker
Computer speakers, or multimedia speakers, are speakers external to a computer, that disable the lower fidelity built-in speaker. They often have a low-power internal amplifier. The standard audio connection is a 3.5 mm stereo jack plug often color-coded lime green for computer sound cards...
s) and a keyboard and mouse. It was affectionately known as "the slab", since the flat shape contrasted quite sharply with the original NeXT Computer (otherwise known as "the cube").
Specifications
- Keyboard: Full-stroke mechanical, 85 keys,
- Mouse: 2 button opto-mechanical
- Central processing unit: Motorola 68040Motorola 68040The Motorola 68040 is a microprocessor from Motorola, released in 1990. It is the successor to the 68030 and is followed by the 68060. There was no 68050. In keeping with general Motorola naming, the 68040 is often referred to as simply the '040 ....
, 25 MHz or 33 MHz (Turbo) - Memory: 8 MB (8 MiBMebibyteThe mebibyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The binary prefix mebi means 220, therefore 1 mebibyte is . The unit symbol for the mebibyte is MiB. The unit was established by the International Electrotechnical Commission in 2000 and has been accepted for use by all major...
) (12 MB for a NeXTstation Color), up to 32 MB in non-Turbo models, 128 MB in Turbos - Display resolution: 1120 × 832
- Colors: NeXTstation: 4 (black, white and two shades of gray)
- NeXTstation Color: 4,096 colors (12-bit) with 4-bit alpha channel
- Digital signal processorDigital signal processorA digital signal processor is a specialized microprocessor with an architecture optimized for the fast operational needs of digital signal processing.-Typical characteristics:...
Motorola 56001Motorola 56000The Motorola DSP56000 is a family of digital signal processor chips produced by Motorola Semiconductor starting in the 1980s and is still being produced in more advanced models in the 2000s. The 56k series was quite popular for a time in a number of computers, including the NeXT, Atari Falcon,...
@ 25 MHz (16 bits, 44.1 kHz, stereoSTEREOSTEREO is a solar observation mission. Two nearly identical spacecraft were launched into orbits that cause them to respectively pull farther ahead of and fall gradually behind the Earth...
, 24 kB (24 KiBKibibyteThe kibibyte is a multiple of the unit byte for quantities of digital information. The binary prefix kibi means 1024; therefore, 1 kibibyte is . The unit symbol for the kibibyte is KiB. The unit was established by the International Electrotechnical Commission in 1999 and has been accepted for use...
) RAM upgradable to 576 kB) - SpeakerComputer speakerComputer speakers, or multimedia speakers, are speakers external to a computer, that disable the lower fidelity built-in speaker. They often have a low-power internal amplifier. The standard audio connection is a 3.5 mm stereo jack plug often color-coded lime green for computer sound cards...
built-in the monitor - Size/Weight: 39.8 (W) x 36.5 (D) x 6.4 (H) cm / 6 kg
- Input/Output: SCSISCSISmall Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it...
internal connector, SCSI2 external port, DSP, video output, proprietary port for NeXT laser printer, two RS-423RS-423RS/EIA/TIA-423 is a standard for serial communications. It defines an unbalanced interface , with a single, unidirectional sending driver, and allows for up to 10 receivers . It is normally implemented in integrated circuit technology and can also be employed for the interchange of serial binary...
serial ports, 10BASE-T10BASE-TEthernet over twisted pair technologies use twisted-pair cables for the physical layer of an Ethernet computer network. Other Ethernet cable standards employ coaxial cable or optical fiber. Early versions developed in the 1980s included StarLAN followed by 10BASE-T. By the 1990s, fast, inexpensive...
and 10BASE-2 EthernetEthernetEthernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies.... - Media: 3.5 in floppy disk drive (2.88 MB (2880 KiB)), hard diskHard diskA hard disk drive is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data storage device. It features rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the...
from 105 MB (105 million byteByteThe byte is a unit of digital information in computing and telecommunications that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, a byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the basic addressable element in many computer...
s) to 4 GB (4 billion bytes). (Larger sizes may work but the OS cannot use partitions larger than 4 GB) - Operating System: NeXTSTEPNEXTSTEPNeXTSTEP was the object-oriented, multitasking operating system developed by NeXT Computer to run on its range of proprietary workstation computers, such as the NeXTcube...
, OPENSTEPOpenStepOpenStep was an object-oriented application programming interface specification for an object-oriented operating system that used a non-NeXTSTEP operating system as its core, principally developed by NeXT with Sun Microsystems. OPENSTEP was a specific implementation of the OpenStep API developed...
. NetBSDNetBSDNetBSD is a freely available open source version of the Berkeley Software Distribution Unix operating system. It was the second open source BSD descendant to be formally released, after 386BSD, and continues to be actively developed. The NetBSD project is primarily focused on high quality design,...
supports some of the NeXTstation's hardware. - Peripherals: ModemModemA modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
- Pricing: NeXTstation US $4,995, NeXTstation Color US $7,995, NeXTstation Turbo US $6,500