NeXTSTEP on PA-RISC
Overview

NeXTSTEP is a Unix operating system developed in the 1980s and 90s by NeXT, based on a Mach microkernel with an advanced graphical user interface. NeXTSTEP supports several 32-bit HP 9000 PA-RISC workstations in release 3.3 from 1994, for which HP and NeXT had high hopes. This was an effort to open up the NeXT operating system to other hardware platforms after NeXT stopped designing its own custom NeXT computers.

Introduced in 1989 by NeXT, NeXTSTEP featured development and user environments, an unique GUI and the Display Post Script (DPS) display system. The operating system core is a Mach microkernel, 4.3BSD compatible and runtime-extensible.
In its early years, NeXTSTEP only ran on NeXT black hardware
, sophisticated and expensive NeXT cubes, based on Motorola 68000.
Intel x86 PCs, white hardware,
were first supported in NeXTSTEP 3.1 in 1991 to open up the platform to off-the-shelf hardware.
NeXTSTEP version 3.3 included support for a handful of contemporary HP 9000 700 workstations (712, 715, 725, 735, 755) with good onboard hardware support but admittedly limited software choices. Third party applications and porting enthusiasm for PA-RISC fell short and the PA-RISC port was limited to NeXTSTEP 3.3 and to thos select set of 32-bit HP 9000 workstations

The PA-RISC version of NeXTSTEP 3.3 was developed on and specifically for the HP 9000 712 pizzabox workstation, a very advanced combination for the 1990s with a nice, integrated user experience.
NeXT tried to get its own NeXT RISC workstation to market (chased a chimera
) and looked at Motorola 88000 and PowerPC, but decided to partner with workstation vendors to bring NeXT to RISC.
Development continued and in 1994 NeXTSTEP 3.3 was released with support for different RISC platforms including Sun SPARC and HP PA-RISC.
NeXTSTEP itself, while revolutionary in aspects, did not have long commercial success. However some of its ideas and technologies live on in Mac OS, after corporate M&A and consolidation in the tech sector.
Systems support
NeXTSTEP 3.3 runs on some HP 9000 700 PA-RISC workstations of the 1990s with 32-bit processors:
Class | Supported omputers |
---|---|
HP 9000 700 | 712, 715, 725, 735, 755 |
Portables | probably SAIC Galaxy 1100 |

Most onboard components and integrated devices in compatible HP workstations were supported, with a few exceptions.
NeXTSTEP ran rather well on HP 9000 712 workstations, on which it was developed.
It provided an unique operating system experience at the time of the 1990s with an integrated Unix system and advanced GUI, NeXTSTEP on the 712 was where NEXTSTEP belonged all along
and HP was "trying for years to put a human face on UNIX" on its HP 9000 PA-RISC computers.
The seriously fast HP 9000 735/125 workstation was the fastest RISC workstation that ran NeXTSTEP in the 1990s, an interesting experience with the contrast of the industrial HP 735 workstation and refined NeXTSTEP OS (minus FWD SCSI and FDDI).
Hardware support
NeXTSTEP 3.3 supports most standard hardware of supported PA-RISC workstations:
- 32-bit PA-RISC processors PA-7100 or PA-7100LC
- HP ASP and LASI chipsets
- Storage required between 400 MB for a user environment to 700 MB for complete developer environment
- 32 MB to 64 MB RAM required, with a maximum of 256 MB supported
- All onboard graphics and CRX and CRX-24 supported
- Onboard communication devices were supported
- HCRX and HCRX-24 graphics supported after installation of NeXTSTEP 3.3 patches
- Onboard SCSI controllers for storage
- PS/2 keyboards only on 712 and 715/64, 80 and 100 workstations, no HIL
- HIL keyboards on all other systems
- Unsupported on 735/755 are FWD (Fast/Wide Differential) SCSI and FDDI
Documentation
Manuals
- NeXTstep 3.3 Network and System Administration Manual, NeXT Software Inc. 1994, mirror accessed December 2019 nextcomputers.org
- NeXTstep 3.3 Developer Documentation Manuals, NeXT Software Inc. 1994, mirror accessed December 2019 nextcomputers.org
Articles
- The NEXTSTEP/OpenStep FAQ, Bernhard Scholz 1996, mirror accessed December 2019 levenez
- First NeXT RISCWorkstation: Our first look at NEXTSTEP on HP's low-cost pizza box, NeXTWORLD, April 1994
- First NeXT RISCWorkstation (PDF), NeXTWORLD, April 1994 archive.org
- NeXTstep on the HP 712 Part 1: Installation, Sophie Haskins, Pizza Box Computer, 2020
- https://blog.pizzabox.computer/posts/hp712-nextstep-part-2/, Sophie Haskins, Pizza Box Computer, 2020
Software
There used to be a large software archive available at the Peanuts.org FTP server. It went offline about 2004-2005, without a known mirror. Other than that there is not much software available, other than contemporary open source or shareware.
- NeXTSTEP Current Patch List (.pdf) Apple Computer 2006, mirror accessed 2009 nextcomputers.org
- NeXTSTEP 3.3
User
patch NS33RISCUserPatch3.tar and release notes NeXTSTEP 3.3 Patch 3 Overview (.pdf) Apple Computer 2006, mirror January 2009 nextcomputers.org - NeXTSTEP 3.3
Developer
patch NS33DeveloperPatch2.tar nextcomputers.org