--- title: BeBox categories: - Computers types: - Professional Computer origins: - U.S.A. years: - '1995' cpus: - Two RISC-based PowerPC 603 params: name: BeBox image: /media/museum/photos/be_bebox_syqtem_s1.jpg company: /companies/be company_name: Be specs: - label: NAME value: BeBox - label: MANUFACTURER value: Be - label: TYPE value: Professional Computer - label: ORIGIN value: U.S.A. - label: YEAR value: October 1995 - label: END OF PRODUCTION value: '1997' - label: KEYBOARD value: Standard PC-AT - label: CPU value: Two RISC-based PowerPC 603 or 603e - label: SPEED value: 66 or 133 MHz - label: RAM value: Up to 256 MB (up to 8 72-pin SIMM modules) - label: ROM value: Unknown - label: TEXT MODES value: 80 columns x 25 lines - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: 640x480 to 1600x1200 - label: COLORS value: 256 to 16.7 million - label: SOUND value: 16-bit stereo sound system - Dual MIDI channels - label: SIZE / WEIGHT value: 21 (W) x 39.8 (H) x 46.1 (D) cm - label: I/O PORTS value: 4xserial, Parallel, 3xInfrared, SCSI II, 2xjoystick, 2xMidi, GeekPort - label: BUILT IN MEDIA value: 3.5'' 1.44 MB FDD, SCSI & IDE HDD - label: OS value: BeOs - label: POWER SUPPLY value: Built-in 240W PSU - label: PERIPHERALS value: 3 x PCI and 5 x ISA card slots - label: PRICE value: Unknown tabs: - photos - emulators - links photos: - title: COMPLETE SYSTEM subtitle: '' text: Picture taken from a Be brochure. Notice the two LED Bar-graphs that showed the processor work loads. image: /media/museum/photos/be_bebox_system_s2.jpg - title: MOTHERBOARD DIAGRAM subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/be_bebox_motherboard_s1.jpg - title: BEOS GUI INTERFACE subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/be_bebox_beos_s1.jpg emulators: - title: MESS url: http://www.mess.org platform: Multiplatform text: The newest MESS version can emulate the BeBox links: - title: Beatjapan.org url: http://www.beatjapan.org/mirror/www.be.com/products/bebox/dual603spec.html text: Mirror of be.com, the official Be web site, now closed - title: BeBox Zone url: http://www.bebox.nu/ text: The BeBox Zone offers a wealth of information about the BeBox comments: - author: Vojin Zivadinovic (Serbia) date: Sunday 6th May 2018 text: It''s a SIEMENS NIXDORF SCENIC Pro M6 i think and it works ,don''t need it and i want to sell it - author: Vojin Zivadinovic (Serbia) date: Sunday 6th May 2018 text: I have a PC that is very old and i want determine it''s value and probably sell it,if you can help me contact me on my e-mail vojinzivadinovic@yahoo.com - author: Sam Taber date: Thursday 15th March 2018 text: Paul Taylor, can i purchase it? - author: Renaud Schweingruber (Switzerland) date: Wednesday 12th July 2017 text: |- Jonathan Present, how can I get in touch with you ?\ Thanks in advance - author: Paul Taylor (North Hollywood, California, USA) date: Saturday 4th February 2017 text: |- I have a BeBox dual 133MHz that I purchased about six years ago but one of the plastic caps that go on top of the front plastic bezel is broken and I wanted to know if anybody out there might have an extra one for sale.\ Also, I may possibly sell this computer if anybody is interested. - author: Jonathan Present (USA) date: Sunday 22nd May 2016 text: When Be closed, I purchased a large number of BeBoxes and parts. I still have the parts. Should anyone require anything, please contact me with your request, I also have printed documentation, and possibly some software - author: Hap Aziz (USA) date: Saturday 1st November 2014 text: |- Hello. I have a BeBox. It is not giving a video signal. Seems to boot up fine and makes all the right noises. Blinkenlights work. There is no signal going to the monitor. I have tried several monitors, cables, and two different video cards in every PCI slot. Any ideas? Contact me: hapaziz at the "g" - author: memsom date: Monday 21st July 2014 text: If you really want a BeBox, I would go for the 133Mhz version. The 66Mhz version is too slow to run any version of BeOS very well. I owned a 66 for about 3 years, and it was a sad day when I let it go, but it was more or less useless to me by that point. - author: Duncan Tallon (United States) date: Sunday 9th February 2014 text: Hello all, I am very interested in purchasing a BeBox. Please contact me a at dtallon13(at)gmail(dot)com. - author: Leonard Banting (Calgary, AB ) date: Tuesday 13rd August 2013 text: |- LOVE BeOS! it was everything that AmigaOS and MacOS Classic could had been. I used to run it on a really flaky AMD system I had that would crash constantly running windows, but not BeOS! it was rock solid. There is even a large $ion of software for it too. I later moved on to ZetaOS and now HAIKU. - author: Thierry (Belgium) date: Monday 18th June 2012 text: I do have one that is taking dust in a box. Looking for an enthousiast or collector to give this beauty a second life. - author: J duPlessis (Wales) date: Monday 22nd August 2011 text: I run a server on a computer with less power than this - author: Dale Gribble (Arlen, Texas) date: Friday 20th August 2010 text: I want one - author: Matthew Veety (United States) date: Saturday 3rd July 2010 text: Amazing machine. It was the very first computer I ever used at the young age of 6 years old (back in 1999). The machine is still my primary computer (this message was typed on it). Runs fast and BeOS takes up barely any RAM. The geekport is really fun too allowing you to expand and fool around with hardware without the issue of damaging your machine. - author: Genie (Finland) date: Thursday 31st January 2008 text: What a geeky computer! - author: Marianne Ibbotson (England) date: Friday 21st December 2007 text: It should be noted that while the company that made the BeBox and BeOS no longer exists, it has inspired the open source Haiku OS, which aims to be source and binary compatible with BeOS (at least, x86 BeOS). Ironically (given the original BeOS's attempt to be lightweight by not having backwards compatibility needs), wanting to be binary compatible with BeOS limits some of the design decisions taken by Haiku, for example, having to use a rather old version of GCC. oc_id: 1142 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230604181440/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1142 date: '2023-06-04' --- In October 1995, Be, Inc. unveiled its first (and last) computer, the BeBox. Be was founded in 1990 by Jean-Louis Gassé, former manager of the French Apple subsidiary.\ For almost 5 years, 12 engineers from Apple, NeXT and Sun designed the BeBox and its operating system, BeOs. The total design cost was about US$9 million. BeBox hadware was based on a dual PowerPC 603 C.P.U. running at 66 MHz (later 133 MHz). The motherboard was not really innovative but featured a large range of Input/Output ports, including IDE and SCSI HDD interfaces, standard PC card slots, MIDI, audio, infrared ports plus a special GeekPort for hardware experiments. The Be Operating System was also developed from the ground up. It aimed to be an alternative to the "Heavy weight" Windows and Mac OS's, which were handicaped by backward compatibility hardware and software issues.\ BeOs was a clear and clean multi-processor (up to 8), multi-threading, multi-tasking, GUI-based operating system, optimized for digital media management.\ The first BeBox machines were mainly intended for use by software developers, BeOs was delivered with Metrowerks CodeWarrior and C++ languages. In spite of its numerous advanced features, the BeBox never met the success expected by its designers, mainly because it was compatible with nothing else in the computing industry. Less than 2000 machines were delivered between October 1995 and January 1997, when production ceased. In 1996, BeOs was ported to Apple PowerPC machines but Apple eventually preferred the NeXT basis for its future Mac OS X. Two years later, BeOs ran on Intel machines. Because of the small size of the company and the competition from much larger competitors, the Be adventure finally ended on Novembre 2001 when the company sold all of its intellectual property and technology assets to Palm. Just before this happened, J.L. Gassé offered for free the lastest version of his OS (R5) to Intel PC users.\ Nowadays, Although marginal, BeOs is still alive, and new releases and updates are regularly announced by the BeOs community.
We need more info about this computer ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system, please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.