by David Morgan
On October 3, 1995, a start-up company called "Be" issued a press release announcing the unveiling of their unique new platform, the BeBox. Not intended for mass-market sale, the BeBox totally abandons the software legacy of the 80x86 and Macintosh platforms, forging ahead with a new SMP (Symmetric MultiProcessing) architecture and their own multi-threaded GUI operating system.
The first BeBox model sports a pair of PowerPC 603 CPUs, surrounded by a cornucopia of I/O including PCI, ISA, IDE, SCSI, 4 serial ports, 1 parallel port, 2 MIDI ports, tons-o-audio, 3 Infra-red ports and the coveted "GeekPort." Hardware and Software developers worldwide are dying to get even a glimpse of the machine. The current list-price for the BeBox is about $1700. Currently, Be is only selling the machines to developers, at a "substantial discount." Hardware tinkerers can even license the entire hardware and software design from Be for a mere $50 per machine built.
Be was founded by Jean-Louis Gassee, a former Apple executive (who posts frequently to comp.sys.powerpc). He compares Be's role to that of the Samuel Adams, as Be produces a small quantity (compared to the computing magnates) of machines for discriminating buyers. Be is on the Web at http://www.be.com.