BeBox

BeBox Dual603
Press image of a BeBox with a Sony monitor.
Developer	Be, Inc.
Type	Multiprocessor workstation
Released	Oct. 03, 1995 (Dual603-66) Aug. 05, 1996 (Dual603-133)
Discontinued	January 1997
CPU	2× 66 MHz PowerPC 603, or 2× 133 MHz PowerPC 603e
RAM	Up to 256 MB (8x 72-pin SIMMs)
Operating System	BeOS
Dimensions	15.68 × 8.28 × 18.15 in (39.8 × 21.0 × 46.1 cm)

The BeBox is a multiprocessing personal computer that was briefly sold by Be, Inc. to run the company's own operating system, BeOS. It has dual PowerPC CPUs, its I/O board has a custom "GeekPort", and the front bezel has "Blinkenlights".

The BeBox Dual603-66 made its debut on October 3, 1995. The processors were upgraded to 133 MHz for the BeBox Dual603-133, which was released on August 5, 1996. Production was halted in January 1997, following the port of BeOS to the Power Macintosh and Power Computing clones, so that the company could concentrate on software. Be sold around a thousand 66 MHz BeBoxes and eight hundred 133 MHz BeBoxes.

Be, Inc. founder Jean-Louis Gassée did not see the BeBox as a general consumer device, warning that "Before we let you use the BeBox, we believe you must have some aptitude toward programming — the standard language is C++."

Configurations

Initial prototypes are equipped with two AT&T Hobbit processors and three AT&T 9308S DSPs.

Production models use two 66 MHz PowerPC 603 processors or two 133 MHz PowerPC 603e processors to power the BeBox. Prototypes having dual 200 MHz CPUs or four CPUs exist, but were never made publicly available.

Main processor board Main processor board 2x PowerPC 603/66 MHz or 603e/133 MHz processors 8x 72-pin SIMM sockets 128 KB Flash ROM Three PCI slots Five ISA slots Internal SCSI connector Internal IDE connector Internal floppy connector External SCSI-2 connector Parallel port Keyboard port, AT-style Three GeekPort fuses I/O Board connector Front panel connector Power connector "Blinkenlights" Two yellow/green vertical LED arrays, dubbed the "blinkenlights", are built into the front panel to illustrate the CPU load. The bottommost LED on the right side indicates hard disk activity.

I/O board I/O board (card) Four serial ports (9-pin D-shell) One mouse port, PS/2-type Two joystick ports (15-pin D-shell) Two MIDI out ports Two MIDI in ports Three infrared (IR) I/O ports (4-pin mini DIN) One internal CD audio line-level input (5-pin strip) One internal microphone audio input (4-pin strip) One internal headphone audio output (4-pin strip) Two line-level RCA inputs (L/R) Two line-level outputs (L/R) One microphone input 3.5 mm stereo phono jack One headphone output 3.5 mm stereo phono jack 16-bit stereo sound system capable of 44.1 and 48 kHz One "GeekPort" (37-pin D-shell) An experimental-electronic-development oriented port, backed by three fuses on the mainboard Digital and analog I/O and DC power}} connector, 37-pin connector on the ISA bus Two independent, bidirectional 8-bit ports Four A/D pins routing to a 12-bit A/D converter Four D/A pins connected to an independent 8-bit D/A converter Two signal ground reference pins Eleven power and ground pins: Two at +5 V, one at +12 V, one at -12 V, seven ground pins

See also

• Multi Emulator Super System (MESS) — able to emulate the BeBox Dual603-66 and Dual603-133

External links

• The BeBox Dual603 datasheet and comprehensive specs at Be, Inc.
• The BeBox Zone.
• BeBox photo gallery by Joseph Palmer (Be hardware engineer)
• BeBox Dual603-66 and 133 at Progetto EMMA
• BEBOX at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
• GeekPort pinout at Pinouts.ru
• BeBox at Wikipedia