NeXTSTEP/hppa
Overview
NeXTSTEP was introduced in 1989 as an UNIX implementation by NeXT. NeXTSTEP features a complete development and user environment, an unique GUI, a special display system, the DPS (Display Post Script). The underlying core is a Mach microkernel, 4.3BSD compatible and extensible at runtime. At the time of its introduction 1989, NeXTSTEP v0.8 only ran on the so called black hardware, rather expensive Motorola 68k systems also produced by NeXT. In 1991 Version 3.1 was introduced and for the first time white hardware (x86) was supported. The development line (68k and x86) was continued and around 1994 Version 3.3 with support for several RISC computers was released, including Sun SPARC and HP PA-RISC 1.1 systems.
The 715/100XC workstation is probably the fastest
non-white
(not Intel-based) workstation compatible with the original NeXTSTEP.
NeXTSTEP is a very interesting alternative on the older 32-bit workstations that support it. It generally feels much faster and more polished than contemporary HP-UX. However NeXTSTEP for PA-RISC lacks many current applications — the system shows its age.
Note that there are two important patches to apply to a vanilla NeXTSTEP 3.3, cf. the References for the descriptions and link.
Supported systems
NeXTSTEP runs on several 32-bit PA-RISC workstations with either PA-7100 or PA-7100LC processors and ASP or LASI chipset.
Supported hardware
- About 400 MB of disk space for a common environment — complete developer environment around 700 MB
- 32 MB of RAM sufficient — 64 MB better
- Maximum of 256 MB RAM supported
- All onboard graphics and CRX and CRX-24 supported
- HCRX and HCRX-24 graphics supported after installation of the NeXTSTEP 3.3 patches
- On 712 and 715/{64,80,100} workstations only PS/2 keyboards supported, no HIL
- All other systems support HIL
- Unsupported on the 735/755 are the FWD (Fast/Wide Differential) SCSI subsystem and the optional FDDI network boards
References
Manuals
- NeXTstep 3.3 Network and System Administration Manual NeXT Software Inc. (1994). [Converted HTML version: Randall J. Rencsok (2000: channelu.com mirror)]
- NeXTstep 3.3 Developer Documentation Manuals NeXT Software Inc. (1994). [Converted HTML version: Randall J. Rencsok (2000: channelu.com mirror)]
Other documents
- The NEXTSTEP/OpenStep FAQ Bernhard Scholz (2000?). [Mirrored at channelu.com, original .org unavailable]
Software
- NeXTSTEP Current Patch List (.pdf) Apple Computer, Inc (2006, mirrored at NeXTComputers.org. Accessed 8 January 2009)
- NeXTSTEP 3.3
User
patch NS33RISCUserPatch3.tar (.tar) and its release notes NeXTSTEP 3.3 Patch 3 Overview (.pdf) Apple Computer, Inc (2006, mirrored at NeXTComputers.org. Accessed 8 January 2009) - NeXTSTEP 3.3
Developer
patch NS33DeveloperPatch2.tar (.tar)
There used to be a large software archive available at the Peanuts.org FTP server. It went offline about 2004-2005, apparently without a complete mirror of it anywhere.