NeXTstation is a high-end

workstation computer A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems. The term ''workstat ...

developed, manufactured and sold by

NeXT Next may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Next'' (1990 film), an animated short about William Shakespeare * ''Next'' (2007 film), a sci-fi film starring Nicolas Cage * '' Next: A Primer on Urban Painting'', a 2005 documentary film Lit ...

from 1990 until 1993. It runs the

NeXTSTEP NeXTSTEP is a discontinued object-oriented, multitasking operating system based on the Mach kernel and the UNIX-derived BSD. It was developed by NeXT Computer in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was initially used for its range of proprieta ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

Overview

The NeXTstation was released as a more affordable alternative to the

NeXTcube The NeXTcube is a high-end workstation computer developed, manufactured, and sold by NeXT from 1990 until 1993. It superseded the original NeXT Computer workstation and is housed in a similar cube-shaped magnesium enclosure, designed by frog desig ...

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 The NeXT MegaPixel Display was a range of CRT-based computer monitors manufactured and sold by NeXT for the NeXTcube and NeXTstation workstations, designed by Hartmut Esslinger/ Frog Design Inc. Description The original MegaPixel Display was a ...

17"

monitor Monitor or monitor may refer to: Places * Monitor, Alberta * Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States * Monitor, Kentucky * Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States * Monitor, Washington * Monitor, Logan County, West Vir ...

(with built-in

speakers Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** In ...

), keyboard, and mouse. It is nicknamed "the slab", since the

pizza box form factor In computing, a pizza box is a style of case design for desktop computers or network switches. Pizza box cases tend to be wide and flat, normally in height, resembling pizza delivery boxes and thus the name. This is in contrast to a tower s ...

contrasts quite sharply with the original

NeXT Computer NeXT Computer (also called the NeXT Computer System) is a workstation computer that was developed, marketed, and sold by NeXT Inc. It was introduced in October 1988 as the company's first and flagship product, at a price of , aimed at the hig ...

'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.NeXT Nitro Information

Specifications

* CPU:

Motorola 68040 The Motorola 68040 ("''sixty-eight-oh-forty''") is a 32-bit microprocessor in the Motorola 68000 series, released in 1990. It is the successor to the 68030 and is followed by the 68060, skipping the 68050. In keeping with general Motorola nami ...

, 25 MHz or 33 MHz (Turbo) * Memory: 8 MB (12 MB for NeXTstation Color, 16 MB for NeXTstation Turbo Color) ** NeXTstation: Eight 30-pin SIMM slots (up to 32 MB) ** NeXTstation Color: Eight 72-pin SIMM slots (up to 32 MB) ** NeXTstation Turbo/Turbo Color: Four 72-pin SIMM slots (up to 128 MB) * Display resolution: 1120 × 832 px * Color Depth: ** NeXTstation/Turbo (256 KB VRAM): 4 colors (black, white and two shades of gray) ** NeXTstation Color/Turbo Color (1.5 MB VRAM): 4,096 colors (12-bit) *

Digital signal processor A digital signal processor (DSP) is a specialized microprocessor chip, with its architecture optimized for the operational needs of digital signal processing. DSPs are fabricated on MOS integrated circuit chips. They are widely used in audio si ...

Motorola 56001 The Motorola DSP56000 (also known as 56K) is a family of digital signal processor (DSP) chips produced by Motorola Semiconductor (later Freescale Semiconductor then NXP) starting in 1986 with later models are still being produced in the 2020s. The ...

@ 25 MHz (16-bit, 44.1 kHz,

stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

, 24 KB RAM, upgradable to 576 KB) *

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** In ...

built into the monitor * Input/Output: ** Floppy internal connector **

SCSI Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, ) is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, electrical, optical and logical interface ...

internal connector ** SCSI-2 external connector (MD50) ** DSP port (DA-15) ** NeXTstation/Turbo: MegaPixel Display port (DB-19) ** NeXTstation Color/Turbo Color: Display port (

13W3 DB13W3 (13W3) is a style of D-subminiature connector commonly used for Analog signal, analog video interfaces. The 13 refers to the total number of pins, the W refers to workstation and the 3 refers to the number of high-frequency pins. Usage ...

) ** Proprietary

NeXT Laser Printer The NeXT Laser Printer eXT PN N2000was a 400 DPI PostScript laser printer, sold by NeXT from late to for the NeXTstation and NeXTcube workstations and manufactured by Canon Inc.RS-423 RS-423, also known as TIA/EIA-423, is a technical standard originated by the Electronic Industries Alliance that specifies electrical characteristics of a digital signaling circuit. Although it was originally intended as a successor to RS-232C of ...

serial ports (Mini-DIN 8) **

10BASE-T 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

and

10BASE-2 10BASE2 (also known as cheapernet, thin Ethernet, thinnet, and thinwire) is a variant of Ethernet that uses thin coaxial cable terminated with BNC connectors to build a local area network. During the mid to late 1980s this was the dominan ...

Ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

* Media: 3.5 in 2.88 MB

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...

drive * Storage:

hard disk A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...

from 105 MB, 250 MB, 340 MB, 400 MB to 4 GB (Larger sizes may work but the OS cannot use partitions larger than 4 GB) * Operating System:

OPENSTEP OpenStep is a defunct object-oriented application programming interface (API) specification for a legacy object-oriented operating system, with the basic goal of offering a NeXTSTEP-like environment on non-NeXTSTEP operating systems. OpenStep was ...

NetBSD NetBSD is a free and open-source Unix operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). It was the first open-source BSD descendant officially released after 386BSD was forked. It continues to be actively developed and is a ...

supports some of the NeXTstation's hardware. * Peripherals: **

Modem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...

Keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

: Full-stroke mechanical (85 keys) **

Mouse A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...

: 2 button opto-mechanical * Size/Weight: 39.8 (W) × 36.5 (D) × 6.4 (H) cm /

References

External links

old-computers.com — NeXTstation

NeXTComputers.org

ifixit NeXTstation Teardown
{{NeXT Computer Computer workstations NeXT 68k-based computers

Overview

Specifications

See also

References

External links