| Manufacturer | NeXT,Redwood City, California |
|---|---|
| Type | Workstation |
| Release date | October 12, 1988; 37 years ago (1988-10-12) |
| Introductory price | US$6,500 (equivalent to $17,300 in 2024) |
| Discontinued | 1991 (1991) |
| Operating system | NeXTSTEP,OPENSTEP |
| CPU | Motorola 68030 @ 25MHz,68882FPU @ 25 MHz,56001DSP @ 25 MHz |
| Memory | Shipped with 8MB, expandable to 64 MB using 4 MBSIMMs |
| Storage | 256 MBmagneto-optical drive, optional 330 MB or 660 MBhard disk |
| Display | MegaPixel 17"monitor |
| Graphics | 1120×832, four-levelgrayscale |
| Sound | Built-inspeaker |
| Input | 85-key keyboard, 2-button mouse |
| Connectivity | Ethernet |
| Power | 300 Watts, 3 Amperes |
| Dimensions | 1-foot (305 mm)die-castmagnesium cube-shaped case |
| Successor | NeXTcube |
NeXT Computer (also called theNeXT Computer System) is aworkstation computer that was developed, marketed, and sold byNeXT Inc. It was introduced in October 1988 as the company's first and flagship product, at a price ofUS$6,500 (equivalent to $17,300 in 2024), aimed at the higher-education market.[1] It was designed around theMotorola68030CPU and68882floating-pointcoprocessor,[1] with a clock speed of25 MHz. ItsNeXTSTEP operating system is based on theMach microkernel andBSD-derivedUnix, with a proprietary GUI using aDisplay PostScript-based back end. According to the Science Museum Group, "The enclosure consists of a 1-foot (304.8 mm)die-castmagnesium cube-shaped black case, which led to the machine being informally referred to as 'The Cube'."[1]
The NeXT Computer was renamedNeXTcube in a later upgrade. TheNeXTstation, a more affordable version of the NeXTcube, was released in 1990.
The NeXT Computer was launched in October 1988 at a lavish invitation-only event, "NeXT Introduction – the Introduction to the NeXT Generation of Computers for Education" at theLouise M. Davies Symphony Hall inSan Francisco, California. The next day, selected educators and software developers were invited to attend—for a $100 registration fee—the first public technical overview of the NeXT computer at an event called "The NeXT Day" at the San Francisco Hilton. It gave those interested in developing NeXT software an insight into the system's software architecture andobject-oriented programming.Steve Jobs was the luncheon's speaker.
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In 1989,BYTE magazine listed the NeXT Computer among the "Excellence" winners of the BYTE Awards, stating that it showed "what can be done when a personal computer is designed as a system, and not a collection of hardware elements". Citing as "truly innovative" the optical drive, DSP and object-oriented programming environment, it concluded that "the NeXT Computer is worth every penny of its $6,500 market price".[2] Theworkstation was not a significant commercial success, failing to reach the high-volume sales of theApple II,Commodore 64,Mac, orIBM PC compatibles. This was mainly blamed on the computer's substantial price, and the fact that there was not a great demand for the system outside of the higher-education market. Next Computers were mainly sold to universities, financial institutions, and government agencies.[1]
A NeXT Computer and itsobject-oriented development tools and libraries were used byTim Berners-Lee andRobert Cailliau atCERN to develop the world's firstweb server (CERN httpd) andweb browser (WorldWideWeb).
The NeXT platform was used by Jesse Tayler at Paget Press to develop the first electronicapp store, called the Electronic AppWrapper, in the early 1990s. Issue #3 was first demonstrated toSteve Jobs at NeXTWorld Expo 1993.[3]
Pioneering PC gamesDoom,Doom II, andQuake (with respective level editors) weredeveloped byid Software on NeXT machines.Doom engine games such asHeretic,Hexen, andStrife were also developed on NeXT hardware using id's tools.[4]
NeXT technology provisioned the first online food delivery system calledCyberSlice, using GIS based geolocation, on which Steve Jobs performed the first online order of pizza with tomato and basil.[citation needed] CyberSlice was curated into the Inventions of the 20th Century, Computer Science[5] at theSmithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.[6][7]
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