Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.

NeXT at the Media Lab

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NeXT at the Media Lab 

In August, Nicholas Negroponte, director of the Media Lab, sent 
electronic mail to Steve Jobs, president of NeXT, asking that the lab be 
one of the first buyers of the new generation of NeXT machines. 

He wanted the machine, which has sound and video capability, for the 
Interactive Cinema Group's new "digs" in the Media Lab. Jobs responded 
via e-mail headed "your next, so to speak, machine" and passed the 
message on to the MIT Microcomputer CenterÑthe local educational area 
distributor of the new generation of NeXT machines.  

And when the first NeXT rolled off the loading dock in December, Pascal 
Chesnais, Systems Programmer in the Media Lab, was there to collect it. 
Since then, Chenais has bought another NeXT station and five upgrades. 

When asked what makes the NeXT so appealing to the developers at the 
Media Lab, Chesnais replied: "We're looking at [the NeXT] for its future 
potential as well as for the things it can do today. We want to be able 
to collect and manage large files from network servers, record sound, 
run video, and create hard copy. 

"Sure, we could spend $100,000 and build these tools on five different 
platforms," he said. "But when the NeXTdimension board comes out, we can 
digitize video images and overlay images. We will have in the NeXT 
machine a single platform on which we can integrate all the projects 
that we now delegate to many different machines." [The NeXTdimension 
board is due in the spring.] 

The full system with the NeXTdimension board will cost around $10,000Ñ
not a bad price for a machine that may eventually do all the things he 
claims it will. NeXT machines are available for sale in the MIT 
Microcomputer Center, with complete systems starting at $3,450.