The 68030 does look like a curious choice for a machine launched in 1988.
Wikipedia says that they considered the Motorola 88000 but with a source that I've not been able to track down.
Wikipedia says that they considered the Motorola 88000 but with a source that I've not been able to track down.
GP is exaggerating. Spark and MIPS were more expensive machines for a different market NeXT wanted a toe in but was merely straddling; business and education were NeXT's target markets. The 68030 with a math coprocessor was bleeding edge in 1988. Sun released a 20MHz and 33MHz 68030 Sun-3x in 1989, a SunOS (UNIX) workstation.[1] Apple released the 68030 Mac SE/30 (16MHz) in Jan. 1989. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the 68030 in 1988/1989. If anything, NeXT was a little fast out of the gate with the 25MHz 68030 in 1988.
They also had a prototype laptop, although I don't know for certain which CPU it was based on. Because the existing battery technology couldn't provide enough juice for reasonable runtime, it was going to be a plug-into-the-wall design.