NeXT (later NeXT Computer and NeXT Software ) is an American computer and software company founded in 1985 by Apple Computer founder Steve Jobs. His name is usually pronounced as " Next ". Based in Redwood City, California, the company develops and manufactures a series of computer workstations devoted to higher education and business markets. NeXT was founded by Jobs after he left Apple, along with several colleagues. NeXT introduced the first NeXT Computer in 1988, and a smaller NeXTstation in 1990. NeXT computers experienced relatively limited sales, with an estimated 50,000 units shipped in total. However, their object-oriented operating systems and NeXTSTEP development environments are highly influential.
NeXT then released many NeXTSTEP systems as a standard programming environment called OpenStep. NeXT withdrew from the hardware business in 1993 to concentrate on OPENSTEP marketing for Mach, its own OpenStep implementation, for some OEMs. NeXT also developed WebObjects, one of the company's first web application frameworks. WebObjects has never become so popular because of the initial high price of $ 50,000, but remains a prominent prelude to Web servers based on dynamic page generation rather than static content.
Apple bought NeXT in 1997 for $ 429 million (equivalent to $ 654 million in 2017), and 1.5 million shares of Apple. As part of the agreement, Steve Jobs, Chairman and CEO of NeXT Software, returned to Apple, the company he founded in 1976. The founder promised to combine software from NeXT with the Apple hardware platform, which ultimately generates macOS, iOS, watchOS and tvOS. Part of this operating system combines the OPENSTEP foundation.
Video NeXT
History
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In 1985, Apple founder Steve Jobs led the Apple SuperMicro division, which was responsible for the development of Macintosh and Lisa personal computers. Macintosh has been successful on college campus in part because of the Apple University Consortium, which allows students and institutions to buy computers at discounted prices. The consortium has generated over $ 50 million in computers in February 1984.
While chairman, Jobs visited university departments and faculty members to sell Macintosh. Jobs met Paul Berg, a Nobel laureate in chemistry, at a lunch held in Silicon Valley in honor of FranÃÆ'§ois Mitterrand, then President of France. Berg is frustrated by the cost of teaching students about recombinant DNA from textbooks rather than in wet labs, used for testing and analysis of chemicals, drugs, and other materials or biological materials. Wet labs are very expensive for low-level courses and too complicated to be simulated on personal computers at the time. Berg suggested to Jobs to use his influence at Apple to create a 3M computer workstation for higher education, featuring more than one megabyte of random-access memory (RAM), megapixel display and megaFLOP performance, hence the name "3M".
Jobs was intrigued by Berg's concept of workstations and contemplated starting a high-tech computer company in the fall of 1985, amidst the escalating upheaval at Apple. The job division did not release an upgraded Macintosh version and most of the Macintosh Office. As a result, sales plummeted, and Apple was forced to remove millions of dollars in unsold inventory. Chief Executive Officer of Apple (CEO) John Sculley overthrew Jobs from his day-to-day role at Apple, replacing him with Jean-Louis Gassà © à © e in 1985. Later that year, Jobs embarked on a power struggle to regain control of the company. The board of directors sided with Sculley while Jobs made a business visit to Western Europe and the Soviet Union on behalf of Apple.
Original NeXT Team
After months of absence, Jobs resigned from Apple on September 13, 1985. He told the council that he would set out to set up a new computer company, and that he would take some Apple employees from SuperMicro's division with him. He also told the council that his new company would not compete with Apple and might even consider design licenses back to them to be marketed under the Macintosh brand.
Jobs named his new company Next, Inc. A number of former Apple employees followed him to Next, including Joanna Hoffman, Bud Tribble, George Crow, Rich Page, Susan Barnes, Susan Kare, and Dan'l Lewin. After consulting with major education buyers from across the country, including a follow-up meeting with Paul Berg, the temporary specifications for workstations were made. It was designed to be powerful enough to run wet lab simulations and cheap enough for college students in their dorm room. Before the specifications are completed, however, Apple sues Next for a "nasty scheme" to take advantage of inside companion information. Jobs commented, "It's hard to think that a $ 2 billion company with 4,300-plus people can not compete with six people with blue jeans." The lawsuit was eventually dismissed before the trial.
In 1986, Jobs recruited renowned graphic designer, Paul Rand, to create a brand identity at a cost of $ 100,000. Rand created a 20-page brochure detailing the brand, including the exact angle used for the logo (28 Â °) and the spelling of the new company name, NeXT. The first major investment is from Ross Perot, who invested after seeing the segment about NeXT at The Entrepreneurs . In 1987, he invested $ 20 million to exchange for 16% of NeXT shares and then joined the board of directors in 1988.
1987-93: NeXT Computer
First generation
NeXT changed its business plan in mid-1986. The company decided to develop computer hardware and software, not just low-end workstations. A team led by Avie Tevanian, who has joined the company after working as one of Mach's kernel engineers at Carnegie Mellon University, is to develop the NeXTSTEP operating system. The hardware division, led by Rich PageÃ, - one of the founders who previously led the Apple Lisa team - designed and developed the hardware. The first NeXT plant was completed in Fremont, California in 1987. The factory is capable of producing 150,000 engines per year. The first NeXT workstation was officially named NeXT Computer, although it was widely called "cube" because of its distinctive case, the 1 ft. Magnesium cube, designed by Apple IIc case designer Frogdesign in accordance with the orders of Jobs.
The original design team had anticipated the release of a $ 3,000 computer in the spring of 1987 to be ready for sale that summer. The NeXT Computer received a standing ovation when it was revealed at a luxurious and invited gala event, "Introduction to NeXT - Introduction to NeXT Generation Computers for Education" at Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, California on Wednesday October 12, 1988. The next day, selected software educators and software developers were invited (with a $ 100 registration fee) to attend the first public technical publication of NeXT computers at an event called "The NeXT Day" held at the San Francisco Hilton. This event provides developers interested in developing NeXT software insight into software architecture, object-oriented programming, and development for NeXT Computer. The lunchtime speaker is Steve Jobs.
The first machine was tested in 1989, after which NeXT began selling limited numbers to the university with the beta version of the installed NeXTSTEP operating system. Originally NeXT Computer was targeted only to US higher education institutions, with a base price of $ 6,500. This machine is mostly reviewed in magazines, generally concentrate on hardware. When asked if he was upset because his computer debut was delayed for several months, Jobs replied, "Too late? The computer is five years ahead of time!"
The NeXT computer is based on a new 25 MHz Motorola 68030 central processing unit (CPU). The Motorola 88000 RISC chip was originally considered, but not available in sufficient quantities. It includes between 8 and 64 MB random-access memory (RAM), 256 MB magneto-optical (MO) drive, 40 MB (swap-only), 330 MB or 660 MB hard disk drive, 10BASE2 Ethernet, NuBus and screen < i> MegaPixel 17-inch sized 1120 x 832 pixels. In 1989 a typical new PC, Macintosh, or Amiga computer included several megabytes of RAM, a 640ÃÆ' â € "480 16-color display or 320x240 4000-color display, 10 to 20 megabyte hard drives and less networking capabilities. It is also the first computer to be shipped with a general purpose DSP chip (Motorola 56001) on the motherboard. It's used to support advanced music and sound processing, including the Music Kit device.
Magneto-optical drives manufactured by Canon Inc. used as the primary mass storage device. This drive is relatively new in the market, and NeXT is the first computer to use it. They are cheaper than hard drives (especially the empty media: although each has a $ 150 fee for Canon, Jobs's normally frank negotiations see Canon approve retail only $ 50 each) but slower (with an average search time of 96 ms). The design makes it impossible to move files between computers without a network, because each NeXT Computer has only one MO drive and the disk can not be deleted without shutting down the system. The storage option proved challenging for the first NeXT Computers. Magneto-optical media is relatively expensive and has performance and reliability issues though faster than floppy drives. The drive is not enough to run as the main medium running the NeXTSTEP operating system either in terms of speed or capacity.
In 1989, NeXT made a deal with Retail Business retailers to sell NeXT computers in certain markets nationwide. Selling through a retailer is a major change from NeXT's original business model that only sells directly to students and educational institutions. Businessland founder David Norman estimates that NeXT Computer sales will exceed Compaq's computer sales after 12 months.
In 1989, Canon invested US $ 100 million in NeXT, giving it a 16.67% stake, making NeXT worth nearly $ 600 million. Canon invests in NeXT on condition that it will be able to use the NeXTSTEP environment with its own workstation, which means a highly expanded market for software. After NeXT left the hardware business, Canon produced a series of PCs, called object.station , including models 31, 41, 50 and 52, designed specifically to run NeXTSTEP/Intel. Canon also serves as a distributor of NeXT in Japan.
The NeXT computer was first launched in the retail market in 1990, for $ 9999. NeXT native Ross Perot resigned from the board in June 1991 to dedicate more time to Perot Systems, a Plano, Texas based systems integrator.
Second generation
NeXT released the second generation of workstations in 1990. The new range includes the revised NeXT computer, renamed NeXTcube, and NeXTstation, dubbed "slab," which uses the "pizza box" box shape factor. Explicit work on ensuring NeXT staff does not use the last terminology, lest NeXT engines be compared to competing Sun workstations. The magneto-optical drive is replaced with a 2.88 MB floppy drive to offer users how to use their floppy disks. However, the 2.88 MB individual disks are expensive and the technology does not replace the 1.44 MB floppy. Aware of this, NeXT utilizes CD-ROM drives, which ultimately become the industry standard for storage. Color graphics are available on NeXTstation Color and NeXTdimension graphics processor hardware for NeXTcube. The new computers are cheaper and faster than their predecessors, with the new Motorola 68040 processor.
In 1992, NeXT launched the "Turbo" variant of NeXTcube and NeXTstation with 33Ã, MHz 68040 processor and maximum RAM capacity increased to 128 MB. NeXT sold 20,000 computers in 1992 (NeXT counted an upgraded motherboard on the backseat as a sale) - a small amount compared to their competitors. However, the company reported sales of $ 140 million for the year, prompting Canon to invest more $ 30 million to keep the company going.
In total, 50,000 NeXT machines were sold, including thousands to the National Secret Record Office located in Chantilly, Virginia. NeXT's long-term goal is to migrate to the RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) architecture, a processor design strategy intended to improve performance. This project is known as NeXT RISC Workstation (NRW). Originally NRW will be based on the Motorola 88110 processor, but due to a lack of confidence in Motorola's commitment to the 88000 series architecture, it was redesigned around dual PowerPC 601. NeXT generated multiple motherboards and enclosures, but out of the hardware business before full production.
Software applications
NeXT computers shipped with Mathematica pre-installed. Some developers use the NeXT platform to write a pilot program. Tim Berners-Lee used NeXT Computer in 1990 to create Web browsers and Web servers first; therefore, NeXT was instrumental in the development of the World Wide Web.
NeXT is an engineering computer used by professors for the most serious scientific challenges, and also to develop a completed newspaper layout using News that runs on Next. George Mason University in the early 1990s had a set for publishing, as well as Silicon Graphics for CAD/GL and Mathematica for astrophysics. Doom Game , Doom II: Earth Hell and Earthquake developed by id Software on NeXT machine. Other games based on Doom machines, such as Heretic and Hexen: Beyond Heretic by Raven Software, and Strife by Rogue Entertainment also developed on NeXT hardware using id tool.
Other commercial programs were released for NeXT computers, including Altsys Virtuoso, a vector depiction program with page layout features ported to Mac OS and Microsoft Windows as Aldus FreeHand v4, and Lotus Improv spreadsheet program. The system also comes with a number of smaller built-in applications, such as the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, Oxford Quotations, William Shakespeare's comprehensive works, and the Digital Librarian search engine to access them.
1993-96: NeXT Software
NeXT began porting the NeXTSTEP operating system to IBM compatible PCs using the Intel 80486 processor in late 1991. The operating system was ported to Intel architecture due to a change in NeXT's business strategy, which later removed itself from the hardware business entirely. The demonstration port was featured at NeXTWorld Expo in January 1992. In mid-1993 the product was complete and version 3.1, also known as NeXTSTEP 486, was released. Prior to the release of NeXTSTEP, Chrysler plans to buy 3,000 copies in 1992.
NeXTSTEP 3.x is then ported to PA-RISC and SPARC-based platforms, for a total of four versions: NeXTSTEP/NeXT (for NeXT's 68k "black box"), NeXTSTEP/Intel, NeXTSTEP/PA-RISC and NeXTSTEP/SPARC. Although this port is not widely used, NeXTSTEP gained popularity in institutions such as First Chicago NBD, Swiss Bank Corporation, O'Connor and Company, and other organizations because of its programming model. It is also used by many American federal agencies, such as the United States Naval Research Laboratory, the National Security Agency, the Advanced Research Project Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office. Some IBM PC clone vendors offer customized hardware solutions and are sent NeXTSTEP at Intel, such as Elonex NextStation and Canon.station 41 objects.
NeXT withdrew from the hardware business in 1993 and the company was renamed NeXT Software Inc; consequently, 300 out of 540 staff employees were laid off. NeXT negotiated to sell the hardware business, including the Fremont factory, to Canon. Canon later withdrew from the deal. Works on a stopped PowerPC machine, along with all hardware production. Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy announced plans to invest $ 10 million in 1993 and use NeXT (OpenStep) software in the future of Sun systems. NeXT partnered with Sun to create NeXTSTEP OpenStep without a Mach-based kernel.
After dropping the hardware business, NeXT re-sells tools to run on other operating systems, which ultimately return to the original business plan. New products based on OpenStep released, including OpenStep Enterprise, a version for Microsoft Windows NT. The company also launched WebObjects, a platform for building large-scale dynamic web applications. Many big businesses including Dell, Disney, WorldCom, and BBC use this WebObject software for a short time. Currently, WebObject is used almost entirely to run Apple's iTunes Store and most of its corporate websites.
1996-97: Apple Merger
Apple Computer announced its intention to acquire NeXT on December 20, 1996. Apple paid $ 429 million in cash, granted to initial investors and 1.5 million shares of Apple shares, granted to Steve Jobs, who deliberately was not given cash for his share. in the deal. The main purpose of this acquisition is to use NeXTSTEP as a foundation to replace the obsolete Mac OS rather than BeOS or Copland being developed. The deal was settled on February 7, 1997, bringing Jobs back to Apple as a consultant, who was later appointed as interim CEO. In 2000 Jobs took the position of CEO as a permanent assignment.
Some NeXT executives changed their Apple counterparts when Steve Jobs restructured the company's board of directors. Over the next five years, the NeXTSTEP operating system is ported to the PowerPC architecture. At the same time, Intel ports and OpenStep Enterprise toolkit for Windows are both produced. The operating system is code named Rhapsody, while the toolkit for development on all platforms is called "Yellow Box". For backwards compatibility Apple adds "Blue Box" to Rhapsody, allowing existing Mac apps to run in a standalone cooperative multitasking environment.
The server version of the new operating system was released as Mac OS X Server 1.0 in 1999, and the first consumer version, Mac OS X 10.0, in 2001. The OpenStep developer toolkit has been renamed Cocoa. Rhapsody's Blue Box was renamed the Classic Environment and changed to run a full-screen app without requiring separate windows. Apple includes the latest version of the original Macintosh toolbox, called Carbon, which gives Mac applications access to the environment without Blue Box restrictions. Some NeXTSTEP interface features are used in Mac OS X, including the Dock, the Services menu, the "Browser" browser view, and the Cocoa text system.
The independent capabilities of the NeXTSTEP processor are retained on Mac OS X, which leads to versions of PowerPC and Intel x86 (though only publicly available PowerPC versions prior to 2006). Apple moved to Intel processors in August 2006.
Maps NeXT
Corporate culture and community
Jobs created a different corporate culture at NeXT in terms of facilities, salaries, and benefits. Jobs had experimented with some structural changes at Apple but at NeXT he ignored the conventional corporate structure, instead of creating "community" with "members" instead of employees. There were only two different salaries at NeXT until the early 1990s. Team members who joined before 1986 were paid $ 75,000 while those who joined afterwards paid $ 50,000. This causes some awkward situations where managers are paid less than their employees. Employees are given performance appraisals and are up every six months due to unclear salary plans. To foster openness, all employees have full access to the payroll, even though some employees have taken advantage of that privilege. The NeXT health insurance plan offers benefits to not only married couples but unmarried couples and same-sex couples, although the last privilege is later withdrawn due to insurance complications. Salary payout schedule is also very different from other companies in Silicon Valley at that time: instead of being paid twice a month at the end of the payment period, employees will be paid once a month before.
Jobs found office space in Palo Alto, California at 3475 Deer Creek Road, occupying a glass and concrete building featuring a ladder designed by architect I. M. Pei. The first floor uses hardwood floors and large work desks where workstations will be assembled. To avoid inventory errors, NeXT uses a just-in-time inventory strategy (JIT). The company is contracted for all major components such as motherboards and cases and has finished components delivered to the first floor for assembly. The second floor is an office space with an open floor plan. The only enclosed room is Jobs's office and several conference rooms.
When NeXT develops, more office space is needed. The company rents an office at 800 and 900 Chesapeake Drive in Redwood City, which is also designed by Pei. The architectural core is the "floating" staircase with no visible support. The open floor plan is maintained, although the furniture becomes luxurious, with $ 5,000 seats, $ 10,000 sofas and Ansel Adams prints.
NeXT's first campus in Palo Alto was then occupied by SAP AG. Former second campus in Redwood City was occupied by ApniCure and OncoMed Pharmaceuticals Inc.
The first edition of the magazine NeXTWORLD was printed in 1991. It was published in San Francisco by Integrated Media and edited by Michael Miley and later Dan Ruby. It is the only regular mainstream to discuss NeXT computers, operating systems and NeXT software. The publication was discontinued in 1994 after only four volumes. A NeXTWORLD Expo was followed as a developer conference, held in 1991 and 1992 at the San Francisco Civic Center and in 1993 and 1994 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, with Steve Jobs as the keynote speaker.
Influence on computer industry
Although the commercial success of NeXT is limited, the company has a wide impact on the computer industry. Object-oriented programming and graphical user interfaces became more common after the 1988 release of NeXTcube and NeXTSTEP, when other companies began to emulate NeXT object-oriented systems. Apple started the Taligent project in 1989, with the goal of building an operating system like NeXT for the Macintosh, with collaboration from Hewlett-Packard and IBM.
Microsoft announced the Cairo project in 1991; The Cairo specification includes an object-oriented user interface feature similar to the upcoming consumer version of Windows NT. Although the project was eventually abandoned, some elements were integrated into other projects. In 1994, Microsoft and NeXT collaborated on Windows NT OpenStep ports; ports, however, were never released.
WebObjects failed to achieve widespread popularity in part because of its initial high price of US $ 50,000, but it remains the first and most prominent example of a web application server that allows dynamic page creation based on user interaction compared to static content. WebObjects is now bundled with MacOS Server and Xcode.
See also
- NeXT character set
Note
References
- Deutschman, Alan (2001). The Second Coming of Steve Jobs . Broadway. ISBN 0-7679-0433-8.
- Linzmayer, Owen W. (2004). Apple Confidential 2.0 . No Starch Press. ISBNÃ, 1-59327-010-0. Malone, Michael (1999). Infinite Loop . Currency. ISBNÃ, 0-385-48684-7.
- Stross, Randall E. (1993). Steve Jobs & amp; NeXT Big Thing . Scribner. ISBN 0-689-12135-0.
- Young, Jeffrey S.; Simon, William L. (2005). iCon: Steve Jobs . John Wiley & amp; Children. ISBN 0-471-72083-6.
External links
- "www.next.com (web archive)". Archived from the original on April 12, 1997. Ã,
- Watch Steve Jobs exchange ideas with the NeXT team in this exciting video, November 20, 2011
- Workstation Computer Chronology
- "Announced announcement of Apple's acquisition of NeXT". Archived from the original on April 12, 1997.
- Full acquisition/merger contract between Apple and NeXT
- NeXT Computer History Site
- NeXTWORLD Magazine Archive
- NeXTcomputers.orgÃ, - Welcome to the NeXT world!
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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