--- title: Next Computers NeXT Station categories: - Computers types: - Professional Computer origins: - U.S.A. years: - '1989' cpus: - Motorola MC 68040 params: name: NeXT Station company: /companies/next-computers company_name: Next Computers specs: - label: NAME value: NeXT Station - label: MANUFACTURER value: Next Computers - label: TYPE value: Professional Computer - label: ORIGIN value: U.S.A. - label: YEAR value: '1989' - label: KEYBOARD value: Full-stroke keyboard, 85 keys, 2 buttons opto-mechanical mouse - label: CPU value: Motorola MC 68040 - label: SPEED value: 25 Mhz or 33 Mhz (turbo) - label: CO-PROCESSOR value: |- FPU Motorola 68882 (math co-processor)\ Motorola 56001 Digital Signal Processor - label: RAM value: 8 Mb (12 Mb for Colorstations) up to 32 Mb - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: 1120 x 832 - label: COLORS value: |- NeXTstation: 4 (black, white and two shades of grey)\ ColorStation: 4096 colors - label: SOUND value: |- DSP Motorola 56001 @ 25 Mhz (16 bits, 44.1 Khz, stereo, 24k RAM upgradable to 576 kb)\ Speaker built-in the monitor - label: SIZE / WEIGHT value: 39.8 (W) x 36.5 (D) x 6.4 (H) cm / 6 kg - label: I/O PORTS value: SCSI internal connector, SCSI2 external port, DSP, video output, proprietary port for NeXT laser printer, 2 x RS232 connectors, Ethernet - label: BUILT IN MEDIA value: 3.5'' disk-drive (2.88 Mb), Hard-disk from 105 Mb to 1.5 Gb - label: OS value: NextStep - label: POWER SUPPLY value: Built-in PSU - label: PERIPHERALS value: Modem - label: PRICE value: |- NeXTstation : $6500\ ColorStation : $7995 tabs: - photos - links photos: - title: FRONT VIEW subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: TOP VIEW subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: RIGHT SIDE subtitle: '' text: Note the 3.5" floppy drive slot on the right hand side of the case. image: null - title: KEYBOARD CLOSE-UP subtitle: '' text: Five keys, above the arrows keypad, allow sound and brightness adjustments as well as system power On/Off. image: null - title: KEYBOARD AND MOUSE subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: REAR CONNECTORS subtitle: '' text: |- MegaPixel display connectors, from left to right:\ • Headphone jack\ • Left & right sound output jacks\ • Main unit connector, carries the power as well as video, sound, keyboard and mouse data\ • Keyboard mini-DIN socket\ • Microphone jack Main unit connectors:\ • SCSI-2 connector\ • Dual RS-423 serial ports\ • Digital Signal Processor port\ • MegaPixel display connector\ • NexT laser printer port\ • Thin and twisted-pair Ethernet 10 MB ports image: null - title: OPENED subtitle: '' text: |- At left side, switching power supply unit and fan,\ at right side: 105 MB HDD and 3.5" 2.88 MB FDD. image: null - title: MOTHERBOARD subtitle: '' text: More info needed about the function of each chip. image: null - title: NEXT LASER PRINTER subtitle: '' text: 300/400 dpi (software-selectable) 8 pages per minute. Uses a dedicated high-speed serial interface. image: null - title: SET OF MANUALS subtitle: '' text: Along with a sheet of NexT stickers! image: null - title: MANUALS CLOSE-UP subtitle: '' text: '' image: null links: - title: Black Hole, Incorporated url: http://WWW.BLACKHOLEINC.COM/ text: Retailer of NeXT computers and related - title: Channel U NeXT page url: http://www.channelu.com/NeXT/index.html text: Site with a lot of information about NeXT - title: Computers Forever 1970..80..90 url: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/fabrice.montupet/ text: Fabrice has a nice page about NeXT computers - title: NeXT Forum url: http://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/index.php text: NeXT forum - title: NeXT Step information page url: http://www120.pair.com/mccarthy/nextstep/ text: A good introduction to the NeXT operating system - title: www.NeXTComputers.org url: http://www.nextcomputers.org/ text: Website dedicated to NeXT computers, NEXTSTEP and OPENSTEP comments: - author: Kip Crosby a/k/a panterazero (United States) date: Sunday 16th June 2019 text: What RAM format allowed 128MB on the NeXT mainboard? I would assume SIMMS, but what size? ty... - author: Shad Smithe (London) date: Monday 15th October 2012 text: There is a nice NeXT turbo color 33Ghz on eBay at the moment, current bid is £10 - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/280996984384 - author: Josh Carlson (USA) date: Thursday 15th March 2007 text: |- I bought a NeXTstation turbo mono about 2 years ago. I love the thing! It's amazing. I've upped mine to 128mb of ram among other things. I use it constantly. i just got my hands on a Cube finally, the thing has been modified and holds 4 motherboards :) This thing is going to be sweet once i get it running correctly :D - author: James (Melbourne, Australia) date: Wednesday 30th November 2005 text: |- I was lucky enough to buy a mono turbo slab complete with 400dpi laser printer. The NeXT machines are very rare in Australia (who had the money to buy one?). I used mine regularly untill recently (my mouse died). I think this would have to be THE most amazing hardware I have ever owned! - author: Karl (Montreal Quebec) date: Saturday 21st May 2005 text: When I had first seen the next station color was at a friends place. ANd it literally blew mymind the first time around. About a few months laters. My friend had asked me if I was interested in buying it. So I made him a deal for buying it and a few other things. Eventually I had received a second Nextstation and some spare parts from him as well to be able to keep the two running fine ar my place. Love th nextstationas a great alternative computer. ANd he's still finding some odds and ends for me from where he works for it too. Including original install disks for it. - author: Dante (Detroit) date: Friday 10th December 2004 text: We had a bunch of NeXT stations at University of Michigan in 1992; they were powerful enough to serve as mail servers for the pilot Unix mail program. It was a great, streamlined OS. Imagine my surprise when MacOS X came out as almost a clone of NeXTstep. I guess Jobs never gave up on it. Too bad Apple didn't keep the original dock concept. - author: Christian Nilsson (Luleå, Sweden) date: Monday 21st April 2003 text: |- I recently got a Turbo Color Next, but unfortunatley I have no access to any installation media!\ I can use the installed Nextstep since I got around the passwords, but unfortunatley several of the files on the harddrive are bad, and I fear that the harddrive is failing! Thus I wonder if anyone can help me get my hands on Nextstep 3.3, both the developer and the user CD would be a dream come true!\ Anyone? - author: Kevin (Dallas) date: Sunday 28th April 2002 text: At Rose-Hulman University in 1991 we had over 300 NeXT's which was quite astounding since there were only 1200 students there. Some were cubes, some were stations and a few where the color turbo stations. Then there was one NeXT super cube. This machine had 3 yes 3 Areol quint processor cards in its 3 expantion slots. Yes thats right boys and girls, there was once a 16" NeXT cube with 16! 68040 processors in it and it really cooked. It was primarily used for advanced mathmatical modeling. I use to run RenderMan on it via remote login. This machine was way ahead of its time. - author: Marcel (France) date: Tuesday 22nd January 2002 text: The NeXTstation was my first computer when I was 13! Not many games on it... related: - /museum/next-computers-next-cube oc_id: 555 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230604030750/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=555 date: '2023-06-04' --- The NeXTstation was a light version of the [NeXTcube](/museum/next-computers-next-cube/). The magnetic-optical drive has been replaced by a hard-disk, as NeXTcube users found this drive too slow compared to "modern" hard-disks available then. The thin design of the case didn't make it possible to keep the NeXTbus slots. There were several models, including a NeXTstation (25 Mhz), a ColorStation with color display (4096 colors, 25 Mhz) and a ColorStation Turbo (33 Mhz). Thanks to [Computers Forever](http://perso.wanadoo.fr/fabrice.montupet/) for his help.