The NeXTcube is a high-end workstation computer developed, manufactured, and sold by NeXT from 1990 to 1993. It superseded the original NeXT Computer workstation and is housed in a similar cube-shaped magnesium enclosure, designed by frog design. The workstation runs the NeXTSTEP operating system and was launched with a list price.

Hardware

The NeXTcube is the successor to the original NeXT Computer, with a 25MHz 68040 processor, a hard disk in place of the magneto-optical drive, and a floppy disk drive. NeXT offered a 68040 system board upgrade (and NeXTSTEP 2.0) for . A 33MHz NeXTcube Turbo was later produced.

NeXT released the NeXTdimension for the NeXTcube, a circuit board based on an Intel i860 processor, which offers 32-bit PostScript color display and video-sampling features.

The Pyro accelerator board replaces the processor with a 50MHz one.

Specifications

• Display: 1120×832 17 in (432mm) 82 ppi grayscale MegaPixel Display

• Operating system: NeXTSTEP 2.2 Extended or later

• CPU: 25MHz 68040 with integrated floating-point unit

• Digital signal processor: 25MHz Motorola DSP56001

• RAM: 8MB, expandable to 64MB (Sixteen 30-pin SIMM slots)

• Floppy drive: 2.88MB

• Hard drive: 105MB, 340MB, 400MB, 660MB, 1.4GB or 2.8GB SCSI drive

• Network interface: 10BASE-T and 10BASE2 Ethernet

• Expansion: four NeXTbus slots (mainboard uses one slot)

• Size (H × W × D): 12 in × 12 in × 12 in (305mm x 305mm x 305mm (±1mm))

Legacy

Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web at CERN in Switzerland on the NeXTcube workstation in 1990.

See also

• NeXT character set

• NeXTcube Turbo

• NeXTstation

• Power Mac G4 Cube, a similar cube computer from Apple

References

External links