The History of the Cube in Computer Industrial Design Options

[*mipadi*]

The other day, I was surfing the web, and I came across some pictures of the NeXT Cube, the first computer from NeXT, Inc. For those not "in the know", NeXT was the computing firm founded by Steve Jobs after he was ousted as head of Apple Computers in 1985. NeXT released the Unix-based operating system NeXTSTEP, on which OS X is now based (NeXT was bought by Apple in 1996). NeXTSTEP utilized a highly advanced microkernel called Mach (also used in OS X, albeit in a slightly different form). NeXT added a lot of cool features still seen in other operating systems today; for example, the taskbar in Windows is a direct descendant of the Dock in NeXTSTEP (which is still present in OS X, of course, albeit in a slightly more advanced form).

The NeXT Cube was a really cool computer. It never made it big, for numerous reasons, but the machine was highly advanced for its time. At a time when most computers still used 5.25-inch or perhaps 3.5-inch floppies, the NeXT shunned the floppy drive in favor of a highly advanced magneto-optical drive. It had an enormous display: an 1120x832 greyscale display, at a time when most PC's 320x200 or 640x480 monitor. It also had Ethernet capabilities and a whopping 8 MB of RAM.

While the NeXT Cube is all but dead, its legacy lives on. Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, had a NeXT Cube at his CERN lab. It was on this NeXT Cube that he designed the World Wide Web and the first web browser. The interface for most web browsers (including the address bar and the back and forward buttons) is modelled after the NeXTSTEP interface.

There's no denying the fact that the NeXT Cube was an important contribution to the world of computing, but there was one thing that leapt out at me: its design. As the name suggests, the NeXT Cube is, in fact, a cube. Here's a picture of Berners-Lee's Cube at CERN (this is, in fact, also a picture of the very first web server!):



Pretty cool-looking, eh? The NeXT Cube makes me wish that more companies designed computers in an awesome cube shape. The cube shape is highly portable and light, yet offers a good amount of space (more than a "pizza abox"-style case). I realized, after seeing this photograph, that not many tech companies are using cube form factors these days; yet, some of the coolest devices are shaped like a cube. Take, for example, the Power Mac G4 Cube and the Nintendo GameCube.

The Power Mac G4 Cube was a pretty cool computer. It was a small grey cube suspended in clear lucite. It had a really cool DVD drive that was mounted vertically, so optical media went into and out of it like a piece of toast. It had no fans because it was cooled by convection. Best of all, it was small and portable.

The GameCube is another good example. The GameCube is a pretty cool computing device, and its shaped like a cube. Sure, it doesn't have a toaster-like optical drive, but overall it's a pretty fun design. It even has its own carrying handle! The device is small, sleek, and looks pretty slick sitting in one's entertainment center. It's a shame that the design of the GameCube will be lost to time, as it looks like the Revolution is not going to have quite the same cube design.

Overall, I've found that I am a strong supporter of the cube in industrial design. It has a lot of benefits, and looks futuristic and cool. The NeXT Cube is, visually, one of my favorite machines, and descendants of that cube design have not failed to deliver results, either. I just wish that cubes were used more often in technology industrial design!