• Raytheon Co. of Boston, MA buys Texas Instruments' defense business for $2.95 billion.

FEB 1997:

• J. Lynn Nidiffer, former newsletter editor, adventure librarian and long time member of the Dallas, TX TIUG dies on February 6th.

• Virgil Thomason, former co-president of the TI-CHIPS user group in Cleveland, OH dies on February 21st.

• The first 56K modems appear. Although there are four rival specifications, none of them actually deliver anything close to the 56Kbps throughput they claim.

• Texas Instruments introduces a Digital Signal Processing (DSP) microprocessor chip that can process 1.6 billion instructions per second, a technical advance that is expected to speed up many computer functions. The new digital-signal processor chip is about 40 times more powerful than a comparable chip found in an ordinary computer modem. A file that currently takes 10 minutes to download off the Internet will take less than five seconds. DSP chips are responsible for functions like processing sounds, driving modems and making hard drives spin.

MAR 1997:

• Kyle Creighton of Competition Computer in Millbrae, CA announces the release of a mouse for the Myarc Geneve 9640. MSRP is $25.

• On March 27th, Gateway 2000 buys the rights to the Commodore Amiga computer, which had been purchased in 1994 from Commodore by the German firm Escom AG.

APR 1997:

• Fest-West '97 takes place on April 5th in San Jose, CA, hosted by Don O'Neill and Western Horizons Technology.

• Harry Wilhelm completes work on the never-released HMENU (Horizon Menu) for use with the Horizon Ram Disk. HMENU provides up to 16 pages of menu screens.
  

• Sterling Software of Dallas, TX buys Texas Instruments' software division for $165,000,000.

MAY 1997:

• TexComp releases the Video Turtle display device for SVideo monitors. MSRP is $129.

• The Lima, OH User Group sponsored Multi-User Group Conference takes place May 23-24, 1997 in Lima, OH.

• Jim Uzzell, dba DDI Software, releases Mybasic 4.0 for the Myarc Geneve 9640. (Lima, OH BB&P Newsletter May 1997, p.4)

• The Southwest 99ers drop the price of the Super AMS 128K Card to $75. (Lima, OH BB&P Newsletter May 1997, p.5)

• Former Myarc owner Lou Phillips gives CaDD Electronics permission to use Myarc Floppy Disk Controller Code in PC99, effectively giving PC99 owners the ability to do DS/DD disk transfers. (Lima, OH BB&P Newsletter May 1997, p.5)

• The 1997 Jim Peterson Memorial Awards are given out at the annual MUG (Multi User Group) Conference in Lima, Ohio. Receipients are:
  
• JIM PETERSON AWARDS ANNOUNCED! -- The Jim Petersom Awards were announced by Glenn Bernasek of the Lima (OH) Users Group. The recipients are:
  • Tom Wills - TI-99/4A COMMUNITY SERVICE
  • Bruce Harrison - TI-99/4A SOFTWARE
  • SouthWest 99ers User Group for SuperAMS card - TI-99/4A HARDWARE
  • Tim Tesch - MYARC GENEVE 9640

JUN 1997:

JUL 1997:

• Long time TI Community member Earl Raguse, who supported the LA 99ers, the TI Users of Orange County, CA, the Southern California Computer Group in San Diego and many others, dies on July 21st

AUG 1997:

• Broderbund Software, itself acquired by Electronic Arts in 1994, buys the Parsons Technology portion of Intuit Software.

SEP 1997:

• MICROpendium changes format to a new 9" x 6" booklet style publication.

• On September 5th, TI Users discover that Delphi has shut down the TI Forum, despite the efforts of sysop Jerry Coffey. The text-only forum was accessible to TI-99/4A and Myarc Geneve 9640 users.

• SCSICAT is released by Bruce Harrison. The program will catalog any root directory or subdirectory on a SCSI drive. Cost of the program is $1.00 from Harrison Software 5704 40th Place Hyattsville, MD 20781.

• Electronic Arts ships NASCAR  98 for the Sony Playstation; it also releases Ultima Online and NHL 98 for the Sony Playstation and the PC platform.

OCT 1997:

NOV 1997:

DEC 1997:

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