Redwood City, CA Ð The range of hardware options available to NeXTSTEP '486 customers will be broader than originally anticipated. Early details of hardware configurations and graphics standards to be supported suggest that high-end models from most major '486 manufacturers could be easily certified for NeXTSTEP with no hardware modifications.
Some high-end laptop, and even notebook, computers could also reportedly meet the specifications listed and run NeXTSTEP.
NeXTSTEP '486 machines will require no more memory or storage than equivalent NeXT models, according to Robert Lawton, NeXTSTEP '486 program manager. Monochrome machines will need 8MB of memory and a 120MB hard disk. Color machines will need 16MB of memory and the same size hard disk. The new OS will support both the widely available IDE- and SCSI-standard hard disks.
Most high-end '486 machines are capable of supporting these configurations. The newest generation of hard disks will make it possible for some notebook computers to offer users the storage necessary to use NeXTSTEP '486.
NeXT also expanded the choices for graphics support of the new OS, which will run on screens with resolutions from 640 by 480 pixels up to the NeXT standard MegaPixel Display. Most Super-VGA machines will be able to run NeXTSTEP in grayscale.
And while the first prototypes of a color '486 OS last January supported only a custom version of Dell's JAWS graphics standard, NeXT now reports that a range of off-the-shelf JAWS-like standards will be supported, including, but not limited to, Dell's JAWS, Chips and Technologies's Wingine, and certain LocalBus implementations.