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Excerpts from netnews.comp.sys.next: 6-Oct-92 NeXT Step on RS/6000?
Virtual Dave@rodan.acs.s (933)

>Hi,
>I once heard someone say you could run NeXTStep on an IBM RS/6000
>workstation because they both use the Mach kernal. I called
>all over the country talking to NeXT and IBM, and no one seems
>to have a definitive answer. Finally someone in Cambridge suggested
>I ask on the net. He mentioned Carnegie Mellon in particular. 
>
>So here it is, has anyone ported NeXTStep to another platform?
>I know about NeXT working on the Intel 486 version. We have lots
>of RS/6000's and just want the OS. The other platform that would be
>nice is the SGI's. I would apprieciate any thoughts and would be
>glad to post a summary.

NeXTstep != Mach.  Mach is a replacement kernel for Unix machines
developed by a graduate student (avie) at Carnegie Mellon.  Mach offers
the same system-level functionality (ie. a standard set of about 100
system calls) as other Unix kernels, but with more efficiency, better
means of inter-process communication, better support for lightweight
threads and multiprocessor machines, and better virtual memory, in a
smaller package.  

His initial version spawned the Mach project at CMU, with a lot more
people working on it.  NeXTs use this second major version (around v2.5,
if I remember correctly).  I don't know what version the RS/6000 uses.

NeXTstep is an object-oriented environment consisting of a Display
Postscript windowing system, Objective-C, the best development
environment available on any machine (InterfaceBuilder, DPS, the AppKit,
etc), and an assumption that the machine running NeXTstep satisfies a
high minimal hardware functionality (8 Mb RAM, virtual memory & hardware
memory protection, greater than 10 MIPS, a large display, etc). 
NeXTstep could probably be made to work on a non-Mach kernel, but I
certainly wouldn't guarantee it.

The source code to NeXTstep is a proprietary trade secret of NeXT, Inc
(and probably the most valuable thing NeXT has).  NeXT would have to be
the ones to attempt any porting efforts to a specific machine (such as
the RS/6000).  NeXT supposedly has NeXTstep running on a number of
machines; perhaps, if you represent a large enough opportunity, NeXT
would be willing to discuss the situation with you.  It can't hurt to
ask; but do so to NeXT, Inc. directly-- the people on the Internet
aren't going to be the ones that can give you what you're asking for.

-Chuck

+---------------------------------------------+ 
|  Charles William Swiger -- CMU sucks rocks  | "The television screen is the
|   AMS & normal mail: cs4w+@andrew.cmu.edu   | retina of the mind's eye."
|    NeXTmail: <temporarily out of order>     |           
+---------------------------------------------+            --Videodrome