NeXT Computer (1988)
After being ousted from the company he started, Steve Jobs took a break. Restless as he was, it did not take long for Jobs to embark on his next big thing. With the help of several ex-Apple employees, Jobs funded NeXT with $12 Million of his own money and endeavored to conquer the growing workstation market, targeting higher-eduction and research customers with the $6,500 NeXT.
In its distinctive 1 foot square cast magnesium package, the NeXT was iconic in design. Within the enclosure, components were highly integrated onto a single system board which was plugged into a NuBus slot that could be joined by as many as 3 other boards.
Original NeXT Cube pictured with it’s distinctive MegaPixel display
Jobs pioneered a number of new technologies with the cube, namely a ‘high-speed’ 256 MB magneto optical removable disk, display postscript, a megapixel display, and the Motorola 68030 (at launch) which was clocked at 25 Mhz, with 8 MB of RAM, expandable to 64 MB.
Received with a great deal of fanfare, NeXT was over-budget from its intended target price and despite technical accolades, was considered a commercial failure.
What you see in front of you is a picture of the original NeXT cube mother board and an actual NeXT cube case along with an original NeXTstation board above. The NeXTstation, successor to the cube, included more power per dollar than the cube and leveraged the 68040 running at 33 Mhz. in ‘turbo’ form.
At launch, Steve Jobs claimed that the technology and capabilities baked into NeXT were 5 years ahead of their time. It may have seemed a lofty claim at the time, but looking at the difference between the 1984 Macintosh to the left, and the innovation released in the next 5 years, it’s difficult to say that he was incorrect.
In creating NeXT, Jobs would continue to pioneer innovative design and use of materials, manufacturing techniques including the early use of surface mount technology (see the YouTube video machine-to-build-machines), and a software stack which brought Object orientated development to a then unheard of level of maturity. To this day, the NeXT cube is a curiosity to many, but the legacy of the NeXT OS (NeXTstep and its Carnegie Mellon Mach kernel) lives on in every Mac.
Further reading, this outstanding FastCompany article. Warning: if you read/listen/watch it, you’ll want one!
Stop by our ‘library’ for a browse through “Inside NeXT – A guide to the Black Hardware” by Luciano Dadda. The photographs are stunning.
Next after NeXT? Nothing…
Well, of course, Steve returned to Apple, Bondi Blue became a thing, the G4 ‘cube’ was cute, we got the iPod, MacBooks (like the one I’m typing on today) etc. but the revolution that began with the aspirational 6502-on-a-dev-board through Apple II, Macintosh, and NeXT became more of an evolution and a game of Moore’s Law, rather than the revolution which created so much innovation in sustained fashion and inspired a generation. Blame the internet?
It is somewhat ironic that the Mach Kernel, developed at Carnegie Mellon and inspirational to the NeXT design, is embedded in modern MacOS. For further viewing/watching, check out this YouTube video which highlights NeXTstep features which were carried to modern MacOS. Of course it’s 5 years old at this point, but most of it is still relevant.
Brought to you by Black Hole, Incorporated
Rob Blessin, owner of Black Hole Inc, was kind enough to provide loaners of the NeXT cube case and NextStation ‘slab’ board that you see in front of you.
If you are in the market for NeXT hardware, memorabilia or accessories, look no further than Rob’s outfit which can be accessed at http://blackholeinc.com. For a realtime view of what Rob has on offer, check out his eBay store.