NeXT Computer
NeXT Computer used by Berners-Lee at CERN |
| Manufacturer |
NeXT, Fremont, California plant |
| Type |
Workstation |
| Release date |
1988 |
| Introductory price |
US$6500 |
| Discontinued |
1990 |
| Operating system |
NeXTSTEP, OPENSTEP |
| Power |
300 Watts, 3 Amperes |
| CPU |
Motorola 68030 @ 25 MHz, 68882 FPU @ 25 MHz, 56001 digital signal processor (DSP) @ 25 MHz |
| Storage capacity |
256 MiB magneto-optical drive, optional hard disk |
| Memory |
shipped with 8 MiB, expandable to 16 MiB using 1 MiB Single Inline Memory Modules (SIMMs) |
| Display |
MegaPixel 17" monitor |
| Graphics |
1120×832 pixel resolution, four-level grayscale |
| Sound |
built-in speakers |
| Input |
85-key keyboard, 2-button mouse |
| Connectivity |
Ethernet |
| Dimensions |
1-foot (305 mm) die-cast magnesium cube-shaped case |
| Successor |
NeXTcube |
The NeXT Computer (also called the NeXT Computer System) was a workstation computer developed, manufactured, and sold by NeXT Inc., a company founded by Steve Jobs and several other veterans of the Macintosh and Lisa teams, from 1988 until 1990. It ran the Mach and BSD derived, Unix-based NeXTSTEP operating system, with a unique GUI using a Display PostScript based back end. The motherboard was square and fit into one of four identical slots in the enclosure. The NeXT Computer enclosure consisted of a 1-foot (305 mm) die-cast magnesium cube-shaped, black case, which led to the machine being informally referred to as "The Cube". It cost US$6,500.
The NeXT Computer was not a great commercial success at the level of high volume personal computers such as the Apple II, the Macintosh, or Wintel PCs; some of the workstations were sold to universities, financial institutions, and government agencies however. Some may still be used around the world as servers and hobbyist desktops. The NeXT Computer was succeeded by the NeXTcube, an upgraded model, in 1990.
Creation of the first web server and the first web browser [edit]
A NeXT Computer and its object oriented development tools and libraries were used by Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau at CERN to develop the world's first web server software, CERN HTTPd, and also used to write the first web browser, WorldWideWeb.
External links [edit]
