NeXTstation

NeXTstation is a high-end workstation computer developed, manufactured, and sold by NeXT from 1990 until 1993. It runs the NeXTSTEP operating system. The system was designed to be a lower-cost option compared to the company's upscale product, the NeXTcube. Compared to the cube, it removed a number of features and had limited expandability, allowing it to fit in a much smaller pizza-box form factor case. There were two major series of the system released during its production run. The initial models were the NeXTstation and NeXTstation Color. Both were based on the Motorola 68040 processor running at 25 MHz. The Color units supported 12-bit color graphics (4,096 colors) stored in a separate 1.5 MB VRAM memory. Turbo versions were released in April 1992¹, which increased the speed of the processor to 33 MHz and increased the maximum amount of main memory from 32 to 128 MB of RAM. Both the station and the cube initially used the same displays, the original MegaPixel display used on the original NeXT Computer. These used a single custom connector that included wiring for the monitor's built-in speaker and the Apple Desktop Bus connector for the keyboard. The mouse plugged into the keyboard. The MegaPixel Color Display moved to the (then) standard DB13W3 monitor connector, and the sound, keyboard and mouse connections were moved to the external NeXT Sound Box.…

NeXTstation is a high-end workstation computer developed, manufactured, and sold by NeXT from 1990 until 1993. It runs the NeXTSTEP operating system. The system was designed to be a lower-cost option compared to the company's upscale product, the NeXTcube. Compared to the cube, it removed a number of features and had limited expandability, allowing it to fit in a much smaller pizza-box form factor case. There were two major series of the system released during its production run. The initial models were the NeXTstation and NeXTstation Color. Both were based on the Motorola 68040 processor running at 25 MHz. The Color units supported 12-bit color graphics (4,096 colors) stored in a separate 1.5 MB VRAM memory. Turbo versions were released in April 1992, which increased the speed of the processor to 33 MHz and increased the maximum amount of main memory from 32 to 128 MB of RAM. Both the station and the cube initially used the same displays, the original MegaPixel display used on the original NeXT Computer. These used a single custom connector that included wiring for the monitor's built-in speaker and the Apple Desktop Bus connector for the keyboard. The mouse plugged into the keyboard. The MegaPixel Color Display moved to the (then) standard DB13W3 monitor connector, and the sound, keyboard and mouse connections were moved to the external NeXT Sound Box. Although the initial models were announced in September 1990, a lack of availability of the 68040 processor resulted in volume shipments being delayed until December of that year, also affecting the NeXTcube.

Overview

The NeXTstation was released as a more affordable alternative to the NeXTcube at about 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 originally shipped with a NeXT MegaPixel Display 17" monitor (with built-in speakers), keyboard, and mouse. It is nicknamed "the slab", since the pizza box form factor contrasts quite sharply with the original NeXT Computer's basic shape (otherwise known as "the cube"). The Pyro accelerator board increases the speed of a NeXTstation by replacing the standard 25 MHz processor with a 50 MHz one. There was also a very rare accelerator board known as the Nitro; between 5 and 20 are estimated to have been made. It increased the speed of a NeXTstation Turbo by replacing the standard 33 MHz processor with a 40 MHz one. John Carmack developed the PC Game Doom on a NeXTStation Color. After NeXT ceased manufacturing hardware in 1993, Canon Computer Systems (a subsidiary of Canon Inc.) acquired the rights to the design of and patents pertaining to the NeXTstation. They later released the Object.Station, an x86-based workstation using the NeXTstation design, in 1994¹. Canon had been a large stakeholder in NeXT since 1989.

See also

Previous, emulator of NeXT hardware NeXT Computer NeXTcube Turbo NeXT character set

References

old-computers.com — NeXTstation at WaybackMachine NeXTstation brochure NeXTComputers.org ifixit NeXTstation Teardown

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1353073665 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.