Post-announcement deatails on Next Inc’s workstation were still sketchy as we closed for press last night, but reporters had begun breathlessly phoning out first details over their cellular phones laid on by Steve Jobs, and the biggest item not already heavily foreshadowed is a 256Mb erasable magneto-optic disk drive, believed to come from Canon Inc, which uses $50 platters. Base price for the system, with a full 8Mb of main memory, is $6,500, and it is assumed that includes the optical drive. The 15 shiny black cube containing the 68030 processor – with maths co-processor and signal processor to produce the astounding quality stereo sound, sits behind a 17 black-and-white monitor from Sony Corp which has a 1,000 by 1,000-plus resolution and two bits per pixel for four shades of grey. The machine comes with black keyboard and mouse. The operating system is a variant of Unix, believed to be Carnegie Mellon University’s Mach. There was no indication of availability.
