NeXT Cube N1000

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The NeXT Computer and the NeXT Cube was developed and sold by NeXT from 1988 until 1993. NeXT was founded in 1985 by Steve Jobs after he resigned from his position as CEO at Apple Computer. They ran the NeXTSTEP operating system. The NeXT Computer informally referred to as "the Cube" was released as a 1-foot (305 mm) die-cast magnesium cube with the aim of changing the way computers were used. It cost US$6500. The NeXT Computer featured a unique magneto-optical drive in the place of the more usual hard disk, though you were able to purchase the latter as an option. The workstation came with a 1120×832 pixel four-level grayscale MegaPixel 17" monitor which also featured built-in speakers.

The 68030 CPU was supported by a 68882 FPU for faster mathematical performance, a 56001 digital signal processor (DSP) for multi-media work and two custom-designed 6-channel direct memory access (DMA) channel controllers, which allowed much of the input/output (I/O) processing to be offloaded from the CPU to boost the speed of common tasks.

In 1990, a revised model, named NeXTcube, was launched with a 25 MHz 68040 processor, larger hard disks replaced the magneto-optical drive and with an optional floppy disk drive. A 33 MHz NeXTcube Turbo was later produced.

The NeXT Computer and NeXTcube were not a great commercial success, down to their high price. However, some are still used around the world. The NeXT Computer did achieved a small degree of notability for being used by Tim Berners-Lee as the world's first web server, and also to write the first web browser, WorldWideWeb.

Our NeXt Cube was original owned by a graphic design company in Tyne & Wear. It is an excellent example in full working order and is complete with manuals, sound box, keyboard, mouse and external SCSI CD-ROM drive. We have a large amount of software on floppy disk including Fonts and adobe software.

These machines are fairly uncommon in the UK.

External Links:

NeXT Cube brochure: http://www.simson.net/ref/NeXT/brochure_index.htm

Manufacturer: NeXT
Date: 1st January 1988

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