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How modern is the Apple Mac?

January 7th, 2007 by pale_whites

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How modern is the Mac? [or any PC for that matter]

Recently I came across an advert for next computers in a 1989 edition of Byte magazine and thought how there were parallels with today’s Macintosh computers.

The advert proposes that the ‘NeXT’ Computer in the 90s will contain 7 of the ten breakthroughs. I will discuss each of these claims and relate them to today’s Macintosh computers in turn.

1. Ability to read and write to optical disks

 In the 1990s, NeXT computers were able to read and write to optical disks of a capacity of 256 MB.
Floppy disks at the time were storing in the order of 720 KB.
In 2006 the Macintosh computer is able to read and write to DVD disks that have a capacity of 9 GB [for dual layer disks].

From Apple…

  • … slot-loading 8x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD RW/CD-RW)… Writes DVD+R DL discs at up to 2.4x speed


ConclusionApart from the capacity and the medium used the ability of the hardware seems on a par.

2. Built on a Unix platform

NeXT was built on a UNIX platform and the ad claims that they made it ‘usable by mere mortals’. In order to make UNIX more usable a new interface was placed over the top of the operating system.
The Mac is also based on a UNIX platform [since OS X] and also has a easy-to-use, friendly interface in the form of AQUA.
From Apple…Beneath the surface of Mac OS X lies an industrial-strength UNIX foundation hard at work to ensure that your computing experience remains free of system crashes and compromised performance.

ConclusionBoth systems offer UNIX platforms with slick user friendly interfaces.

3. A mainframe on two chips

 In the 1990s NeXT claimed that the power of a mainframe was contained on two chips in the machine. This had been achieved through Very Large Scale Integration technology.
In today’s Macs, through the use of the INTEL Core Duo, two processors are contained on ONE chip.
From Apple…Based on Intel’s next-generation Core microarchitecture, the Intel Core 2 Duo offers a second-generation chip born of Intel’s new 65-nanometer process.

ConclusionVast advances have been made in microprocessor design and manufacture but in principle there are similarities.

4. Use of PostScript

PostScript had been used on the Mac since about 1986/7 but only in the area of printing. The NeXT computer was unusual in that it used PostScript to display the contents of the screen.

From Apple…Because PostScript-to-PDF conversion technology is integrated into Quartz 2D, any Mac OS X application can draw images on screen from high-resolution PostScript/EPS data instead of low-resolution bitmap.

ConclusionBoth computers use PostScript at a fundamental level.

5. Sound

 The NeXT Computer offered CD quality audio.
The Mac offers CD quality audio and more through MIDI, MP3, AAC etc.
From Apple…Core Audio Format is the latest addition to the dozens of audio formats supported natively in Mac OS X.

ConclusionBoth platforms offer CD audio quality.

6. Mail

In 1989 the internet was in it’s infancy. NeXT computer was revolutionary firstly for offering an email application but also for making it multimedia capable.

OS X Mail allows multimedia content to be included through the use of HTML.

From Apple…HTML Message Composition Mail uses the Safari engine to format newly composed email using HTML.


ConclusionBoth computers provide a Mail applications that give the user formatting and multimedia abilities.

7. Programming Tools

 NeXT Computers’ offered programmers the NextStep development tool to help them build applications with user interface elements more easily.Apple provide Xcode with each copy of the OS X operating system. This also allows the user interface elements of the applications to be created more easily.
From Apple…The built-in Xcode Tools, combined with time-tested stability and performance characteristics, standards-based technologies, and remarkable user interface, make Mac OS X an amazingly multifaceted development platform.

ConclusionBoth computers gave software developers the tools to create applications.

Summary

As you can see the NeXT computer of the early 90s introduced features that are still a fundamental part of today’s Macintosh computers [and all other PCs for that matter]. Obviously Macs are more powerful today than NeXT computers of old but the comparisons above do show how similar they are.

Hope you enjoyed this article.

Steve.

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7 Responses to “How modern is the Apple Mac?”

  1. on 08 Jan 2007 at 5:00 pm1 Captain Obvious

    Uhhh, I’d imagine that’d be because OSX is based on NEXTSTEP (OPENSTEP/Mach, technically).

  2. on 08 Jan 2007 at 7:42 pm2 pale_whites

    Thanks

    I was aware of that. See my digg.com reply for more info.

  3. on 08 Jan 2007 at 10:48 pm3 Jez

    Still not running linux on your Mac then steve :-)

  4. on 09 Jan 2007 at 8:24 am4 pale_whites

    No.

    Mac OS X is the most popular version of UNIX available [in use] due to the number of Macs in use.

    Linux looks interesting but I could never load it onto my Mac.

  5. on 29 Jan 2007 at 4:53 pm5 Florian

    Hi,
    I found your blog via google by accident and have to admit that youve a really interesting blog :-)
    Just saved your feed in my reader, have a nice day :)

  6. on 11 Feb 2007 at 10:01 am6 Alextutrs

    Hello, my name is Alex, i’m a newbie here. I really do like your resource and really interested in things you discuss here, also would like to enter your community, hope it is possible:-) Cya around, best regards, Alex!

  7. on 14 Feb 2007 at 4:10 pm7 pale_whites

    Thanks for all the feedback. I plan to read through some of the other [many] Byte magazines I have.