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 certain RISC computers was released, including some Sun SPARC and HP PA-RISC 1.1 systems.
The 715/100XC workstation is probably the fastest non-white (i.e. not Intel-based) workstation compatible with the original NeXTSTEP.
Supported Systems
NeXTSTEP runs only on several older PA-RISC workstation models based on either PA-7100 or PA-7100LC processors and ASP or LASI chipset.
Supported Hardware
- NeXTSTEP needs for a common user environment about 400MB drive space — a complete user and developer environment would need the better of around 700MB.
- 32MB of RAM should be sufficient — 64MB are better.
- A maximum of 256MB RAM is supported.
- All onboard graphics adaptors and CRX and CRX-24 are
supported. HCRX and HCRX-24 (
Hyperdrive
) are supported only after applying the NeXTSTEP 3.3 patches (see below in References for the link). - On the 712 and 715/{64,80,100} workstations PS/2 keyboards are needed, HIL will not work on these systems. On the other systems HIL is supported
- Unsupported are notably on the 735/755 the FWD (Fast/Wide Differential) SCSI subsystem and the optional FDDI network boards.
Installation
A CD drive that supports a blocksize of 512 Bytes (Plextor, HP, some Toshiba) is needed to install NeXTSTEP. Its SCSI ID should be set to 1 with the target hard drive preferably at ID 0 (being not larger than 4 GB).
After starting the boot process needs to be interrupted with <ESC>.
The NeXTSTEP installation CD can be booted via the PDC boot ROM
by typing boot scsi.1.
After the installation is finished the SCSI drives can be reconfigured so the
system disk is at SCSI ID 5 and the CD drive at ID 4 (the PDC boot loader begins its search
for an bootable operating system from the higher SCSI IDs).
References
- The NEXTSTEP/OpenStep FAQ
- Extensive collection of information on topics surrounding NeXTSTEP software and hardware support. Bernhard Scholz (2000?). [Mirrored at channelu.com, original peanuts.org unavailable]
- NeXTstep 3.3 Network and System Administration Manual
- Information on configuration of network services, user management, storage, directory services and more. NeXT Software Inc. (1994). [Converted HTML version: Randall J. Rencsok (2000: channelu.com)]
- NeXTstep 3.3 Developer Documentation Manuals
- Documentation for the integrated development tools in NeXTstep and the several APIs and frameworks. NeXT Software Inc. (1994). [Converted HTML version: Randall J. Rencsok (2000: channelu.com)]
There used to be a large software archive available at the Peanuts.org FTP server. It apparently is gone, and there is apparently no complete mirror of it.