History (1989): Steve Jobs’ NeXT Moves Backwards to Offer HDDs for Workstations

NeXT Inc. (Palo Alto, CA) originated the media event that led off magneto-optical disks as the company announced its workstation supplied in standard with a Canon erasable optical 256MB drive and without a Winchester unit.

Shortly after, NeXT was signing an agreement with Maxtor to offer 330 and 660MB HDDs in option, and most of NeXT’s customers favored this enhancement.

Today, NeXT returns to its basic architecture so that applications and data that are frequently used will be stored on a faster-performance HDD.

In the future, without adding to the price ($9,995) and in standard, NeXT’s workstation will include in addition to the magneto-optical unit, a 3.5-inch 40MB HDD, originated from Quantum, with a 19ms access time.

NeXT also said that it will offer its workstations in a network node configuration for $7,995. These will have the 40MB HDD but lack the 256MB magneto-optical drive.

It’s obvious that NeXT backed away from its total reliance on optical storage and is looking forward for new generations of more performing drives.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue ≠22, published on November 1989.