NeXT Computer

Next computer and accessories, manufactured by NeXT, c. 1989. Serial No ABS191980.

NeXT computer, made by NeXT in the United States from 1988.

The NeXT Computer (or NeXT Computer System) was a high-end workstation computer developed, manufactured and sold by NeXT, a company founded by Steve Jobs. It ran the Unix-based NeXTSTEP operating system. Packaged in a 1-foot (305 mm) die-cast magnesium cube-shaped case, the computer was informally referred to as 'The Cube'.

The NeXT Computer featured a magneto-optical drive, though a hard disk was available as an option and a 1120×832 pixel four-level grayscale MegaPixel 17" monitor with built-in speakers. The 68030 CPU was supported by a 68882 FPU for faster mathematical performance, a 56001 digital signal processor (DSP) for multimedia 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. A powerful and advanced machine, the NeXT computer was used by Sir Tim Berners-Lee to devise the World Wide Web and acted as the world's first ever web server.

NeXT collaborated with the Higher Education sector to develop a workstation computer intended to be used by students and academic organisations. Priced around $6500 when it was released, the NeXT computer was intended to be 'the first computer of the 1990s'.