The low-down on NeXTstep 486
Patrick Rusk
significant interest to people on this list, particularly those on NEXT-L who
have been clamouring for NeXTSTEP PC news.
---
Patrick Dean Rusk (W) 617-891-5555
Associate Software Engineer (F) 617-891-5226
Marble Associates, Inc. (H) 617-776-8552
38 Edge Hill Road (E) ru...@marble.com (NeXTmail)
Waltham, MA 02154
Forwarded message begins here:
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.programmer
From: bwil...@iat.holonet.net (Bill Williams)
Subject: Amazing info on NeXTSTEP 486!!!!!
Some of the one thousand reasons why NeXT Step 486 is the most incredible
operating system available.
Location : Stanford University
Bay Area NeXT Group Monthly Meeting
1992.09.16
Presenter:
Bob Lawton, NeXTSTEP 486 Program Manager, NeXT Computer
============================================
1> Runs on nearly any generic 80486 PC clone.
2> Could run any of the 500 or so major NeXT applications once recompiled
for the 486 (effortlessly)
3> While NeXT Step 486 is running it can support sessions of regular
MS-DOS 5.0 based programs at full speed including graphical programs, and
complete functionality with Windows 3.0, Windows 3.1, Windows 3.1 in
protected virtual memory mode, Windows "Win32" NT-subsetted 32 bit
applications, and (not promised but implied) future Windows NT programs.
4> Comes with EVERY one of the ultra-high quality current free
applications and services provided with the newly shipping (as of early
September 1992) NeXT Step 3.0 operating system.
5> Comes with full graphical, indexable, docs on-line, as well as all the
docs and data provided with any NeXT Step 3.0 system. (Or from Addison
Wesley at Bookstores)
6>Supports multi-boot choices at started (pure MS-DOS, NeXT Step 486, etc.
7> When NeXT Step is running you can read and write files between the
partitions supporting NeXT step and those of MS-DOS.
8> Because NeXT Step 3.0 already reads and writes MS-DOS floppies and Mac
high density floppies those disks are supported in NeXT Step 486, of
course. Including Mac CD-ROMs, ISO9660 CD-ROMs, etc. etc.
9> When NeXT step is running MS-DOS sessions in windows the window can be
resized to represent more or less space and can be zoomed in and out.
Demonstrations of flipping between 1:1 1.5:1 and 2:1 zoom factors were
demonstrated.
10> Even non-80486 based Motorola CPU systems (68030, 68040, 88110) from
NeXT will support all the features just mentioned (running ANY AND ALL
MS-DOS BASED APPLICATIONS including Windows 3.1 Win32 apps. This is
provided (probably, by licensing obtained from Insignia for its emulation
of the PC clone hardware, but specially tuned and given new capabilities.
11> NeXT Step 486 supports generic VGA 640*480 video cards all the way to
dual monitor based 1280*1024 32 bit color screens with 7 live video feeds
(future product from unspecified manufacturer). It has drivers for most
video cards.
12> All video cards and all modes are supported (as long as they are gray
scale at worst) The reason even 640*480 support was done was to allow NeXT
Step to run portable computers. In fact they are adding specialized tools
and services right now to greatly enhance the few problems encountered
with small display screens, battery shutdowns, CPU idle speeds, avoidance
of hard disk spinning up, etc.
13> Several major brand SCSI cards are supported. From the shittiest
almost useless ISA based ones to the most expensive intelligent caching
EISA SCSI cards. Drivers that aren't available will eventually be written
if marketplace demands it. Plus NeXT makes it easy for competent
programmers to write drivers.
14> Digital sound as described by the hundreds of pages of documentation
in the NeXT Step programming references IS STILL FULLY SUPPORTED. Why and
how? That's easy... ALL DIGITAL AUDIO CARDS IN THE UNIVERSE HAVE DRIVER
SUPPORT AVAILABLE. This includes the lowliest SoundBlaster, all the way
through the ultra-feature rich ProAudioSpectrum cards. You do not need to
buy a card if not desired. For portable computers, NeXT has drivers for
the parallel port based digital audio peripherals!
15> MIDI, an important capability of regular NeXT step is still available
because of all the dedicated programming done to write the drivers for the
digital audio cards was also spent writing MIDI drivers.
16> When running Windows programs the MS DOS session is done through a
ultra high speed directly mapped GDI device driver!!! This allows a
resizable workspace that windows intelligently knows the borders of. It
also allows in a FUTURE (Q4 1993) version of NeXT step, the ability to use
a separate GDI based window for each and every one of the currently
running Windows based programs, including the ability to intermix at the
individual level NeXT windows and MS Windows windows.
17> cut and paste of text between TEXT mode DOS sessions and NeXT Step is
trivial, but NeXT Step 486 will eventually have ability to properly use
the windows pasteboard between any MS Windows app and the NeXT.
18> ALL IDE interface drives are also supported.
19> Several networking cards are supported, but not needed. Intel and SMC
style 802.3 support for example using any wire format. Including (NEW
FEATURE) token ring for those perverted few sites that need it. It
supports the 16 bit and 32 bit interface networking cards also. It does
not support the new revolutionary (in price/performance) cards being
marketed from 3COM (maybe soon).
20> As mentioned before, all video monitor resolutions are supported
including 640*480, 800*600, 1024*768, 1280*1024 but the great feature is
that the same color space rules for the NeXT station turbos in 16 bit
color apply to these resolutions when in 16 bit video. But a new feature
was added to NeXT Step, 256 shade gray scale, and 16 shade, this allows
even faster color mapping from the Adobe Display Postscript to choose the
final gray shade without a lot of the effort used when trying to
intelligently map to just four intensities on standards NeXTs (which have
do a lot of dithering in postscript normally). Dithering can be minimized.
21> NeXT Step 486 handles the "Little-End-ian Big-End-ian problem of
INTELs brain damaged architecture in a fast manner. The system translates
byte order at the network and disk levels and since all apps are compiled,
not interpreted, there is not speed degradation in processing.
22> Internationalized versions (just like NeXT Step 3.0) exist and a great
Japanese version is almost finished.
23> NeXT insists that all clone makers bundling the NeXTSTEP 486 on
machines use NeXT-black color hardware, and not spray painting the case of
a white box.
24> NeXT expects, based on current phenomenal purchase orders (countless
for 1,000 copies per site all the way to one site committing to 100,000
copies of NeXT Step 486) that only 25% of the computers running NeXT Step
will be NeXT hardware, but that NeXT hardware sales will continue to rise
because of their incredible value (still half as much as a Quadra 950 at
developers pricing, and if an employee of NeXT or a employee of NeXT World
Magazine, only 1/4 the price of a Apple Quadra at developers pricing)
25> Distributed CPU power over the network is now REALLY cheap because
many many $1200 50MHz 80486 bare bones systems (even lacking video
monitor, but including VGA video card) can be configured to turnkey boot
and accept distributed tasks. Windows NT requires human intervention to
log in and type at powerup and thus cannot be configured as a rack mount
unit of a distributed processor.
26> Piracy is not deliberately discouraged with fascist serial copy
protection on software preventing use on networks with other copies.
27> The price is $995 list for all except the developer tools, this $995
includes the pricing for licensing of color postscript (expensive), the
UNIX they licensed (moderately expensive), Renderman, 3D Renderman,
AppleTalk licensing, Novell licensing, Miriam Webster dictionary
licensing, etc etc etc. I'd be surprised if NeXT even makes 300 bucks once
it is discounted.
28> The price including tons of developer tools is listed at $2495. This
is because the licensing is higher for most of the stuff when capable of
allowing programs to be written (vague concept), and because it includes a
lot of goodies, and because it is worth every penny, and because NeXT
knows this will promote piracy and thus further dissemination of the
product (some developer's theory, that I met).
29> NeXT Step 3.0 and NeXT Step 486 are very tightly intertwined, in fact
the same EXACT source code trees are used on the network for
development/enhancement for the two products. Its all one big operating
system.
30-1000 : The remaining thousand reasons that make the NeXT Step 486 so
amazing are all related to the stunning technology embedded in the core
NeXTSTEP 3.0 system and don't need elaboration in this document because it
is focused on the NeXT Step 486 version.
DELIVERY INFORMATION:
Beta due to developers THIS FALL, with a demo of the full application in
demoing form at COMDEX. NeXT will have its NeXT Step 486 products in many
booths but does currently know if it will rent a space or host an off site
suite (as Steve Jobs usually does) for invitees only.
Full release early first quarter. Specialized tools for portables and
notebooks end of 1993.
OTHER INFORMATION:
The currently shipping version of the color turbo NeXT stations come only
with Apple Desktop Bus mice and ADB keyboards. All future NeXT hardware
will support ADB.
NeXT hopes that 1 NeXT Step 486 system will be running for every 9 MS
Windows NT systems 24 months from now. I know they'll make it.
BWilliams (Not a NeXT expert yet, but an envious Mac developer about to
switch permanently)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.programmer
From: e...@futon.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott)
Subject: Re: Amazing info on NeXTSTEP 486!!!!!
In article <BurHM...@iat.holonet.net> bwil...@iat.holonet.net
(Bill Williams) writes:
>10> Even non-80486 based Motorola CPU systems (68030, 68040, 88110) from
>NeXT
Hey--I was *there*--Lawton *never* said that NeXT would be
shipping 88110 systems. He was very careful to always refer to
NeXT-manufactured products as "black hardware," and while he did
say that NeXTSTEP would be available for other architectures, he
did *not* say that future "black hardware" would be 88110-based.
Ponder this:
+ At Downsizing Expo, Avie Tevanian said that "NeXT is a software
company. We just happen to believe that we make great reference
hardware."
+ Last night, someone said that Steve [Jobs] expected "black
hardware" to account for no more than 25% of the machines
running NeXTSTEP.
+ Again at Downsizing Expo, one of the Data General people said
that NeXT complemented their products well. "We have awesome
servers, but nothing like NeXT's user interface."
+ Does that mean that we'll see NeXTSTEP running on a DG desktop?
I actually don't think there's much of a market there. As far
as DG is concerned, the current NeXTstation Turbo Color product
has sufficient performance to be a user workstation. Compute-
intensive tasks can (and should) happen on shared [headless]
servers.
+ My thoughts: what makes NeXTSTEP so expensive? A lot of it
comes from licensing frees NeXT has to pay to other companies.
Let's suppose a client-server arrangement. What would be needed
on the DG side? DG already has an operating system (DG/UX) so
the USL royalty is taken care of. The Display PostScript Client
library is free--Adobe donated that to the X Consortium. The
.afm files are free. gcc is free. The Objective-C support and
NeXTSTEP itself come from NeXT--they own it. The remaining
licensed materials (DPS server, fonts) are on the black
hardware--and already paid for. Consequently, putting together
just enough to allow programs to be compiled on the DG and run
with -NXHost to a NeXT is dirt cheap! NeXT's bundled
Applications don't need to be ported. About the only thing
NeXT's ever shipped that's a CPU pig is Mathematica, but the
kernel is separate from the NeXTSTEP Application (which need
only run locally).
+ My thoughts, continued: here's an easy way to make program
execution transparent (here I go, probably blowing my chance at
an evil software patent): introduce a new "remote execute" NFS
mount option that would modify execve(2) to not to load
anything, but instead message the NFS server host to start
executing on *that* side (passing back arguments, environment,
etc.), and -NXHost back to the NeXT. The user simply double-
clicks and It Just Works. No "obese binaries" needed, either.
(Or not modify the kernel at all, and let the Workspace Manager
determine whether to execute locally or transparently message
the remote. I lean toward hacking the kernel, since the
Workspace Manager isn't strictly necessary.)
+ Any reason for NeXT not to _also_ offer a "full native"
NeXTSTEP for 88K? Not really--y'see, all those folks with
viable 88K-based workstations (including DG) belong to the
88open Consortium. Just as all the SPARC-based machines "out
there" are basically Sun "clones," all the 88K machines are
supposedly "clones" of each other. That means it should be
possible to make a "shrink-wrapped" NeXTSTEP 88K.
+ Is a SPARC version of NeXTSTEP on the horizon? Doesn't look
likely. SPARC price/performance isn't so hot. The 68K line
(which isn't dead) more or less keeps pace. Users "demanding"
NeXTSTEP on some sort of RISC processor would do much better
with 88K or PA-RISC. (Don't start any HP rumors, ok?)
+ Why shouldn't NeXT bother with 88K-based "black hardware?" If
they were to join 88open, there'd be no obvious way to
innovate. If they didn't, they'd have a proprietary system
that would be panned by the media and scoffed at by industry.
Treat everything you've heard about "the brick" as
misinformation (or disinformation).
+ Don't assume that NeXT behaves rationally. They have a whole
bunch of microcephalics in Marketing, and seem to "think with
the small head" more often than not.
This discussion is best continued in one of the other newsgroups.
>11> NeXT Step 486 supports generic VGA 640*480 video cards all the way to
>dual monitor based 1280*1024 32 bit color screens with 7 live video feeds
>(future product from unspecified manufacturer). It has drivers for most
>video cards.
High-end video cards. VGA and SVGA would almost certainly be
limited to grayscale--although it would probably be 8-bit
grayscale rather than the 2-bit we know and love. The demo
machine was a production (not prototype) 50MHz 80486DX2 system
with JAWS video selling for ~$6000. Lawton said that JAWS would
likely continue to be fairly expensive, but that far more
affordable alternatives (such as the Chips and Technologies
Wingine) would also be supported, and in answer to a question
from the audience, that a suitable system would probably retail
for ~$2000 within a few months. Also, while NeXT has only
announced support for Compaq and Dell machines, they will be
certifying other vendor's hardware as "NeXTSTEP compatible."
They would all share certain characteristics--such as a linearly-
addressed frame buffer. He emphasized that most existing
("legacy") PeeCees would *not* be suitable, and that something
advertised as "local bus compatible" would not necessarily do
"the right things" for NeXTSTEP.
>21> NeXT Step 486 handles the "Little-End-ian Big-End-ian problem of
>INTELs brain damaged architecture in a fast manner.
That's simply because the '486 deals efficiently with big-endian
data and '386 does not. That's Intel's doing.
Plan on connecting to a network? Internet protocols require
everything be converted to big-endian before being placed on the
wire. So does the XDR used by Sun RPC and NFS. Want to take a
guess what AppleTalk wants? (Then there's the need to accomodate
NeXT-specific formats, such as Typed Streams.)
BTW, It's now official that NeXTSTEP 486 *will not* run on any
386-based machines. (Also, 486SX is "not recommended.")
-=EPS=-