Sony NEWS NWS-800

The Sony NEWS NWS-800 launched Sony’s Network Engineering Workstation family as a personal Unix system intended to rival VAX-class minicomputer performance. Separate Motorola 68020 processors handled computation and input/output workloads.

NEWS-OS was based on 4.2BSD Unix and adopted NFS and the X Window System for distributed research networks. Universities, laboratories and software developers became important users of the competitively priced Japanese workstation.

Notable Features

• Dual-processor design separated main computation from heavy I/O activity.
• NEWS-OS combined BSD Unix, NFS and the X Window System.

Historical Significance

• Launched Sony’s influential NEWS workstation family in January 1987.
• Delivered VAX-class ambitions at prices accessible to universities and research laboratories.

Collector’s Notes

• NWS-800 series memory, disks and display adapters varied considerably by configuration.
• NEWS-OS media, network hardware and matching Sony displays are essential historical components.

Specifications

Technical Information
Name	Sony NEWS NWS-800
Manufacturer	Sony
Launched	Thursday, January 1, 1987
Launch Price	From approximately ¥950,000
Country	Japan
CPU	Dual Motorola MC68020 processors
Units Sold
Operating System	Sony NEWS-OS based on 4.2BSD Unix with NFS and X Window System
I/O	Ethernet, SCSI, serial, parallel and workstation expansion interfaces
Keyboard	Separate professional keyboard and mouse
Storage	Hard disk configurations from diskless to large SCSI drives; prototype documented with 80MB
Sound	Internal beeper
Graphics	Model-dependent framebuffer and X Window graphics
Display	High-resolution monochrome or colour workstation display
ROM	Boot and diagnostic firmware
RAM	Configuration dependent; prototype documented with 2MB
CPU Speed	Model dependent; Motorola 68020 architecture