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A Year Ago: 1997 In Review

First published: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 08:00:00 GMT
Written by Martin Veitch, Contributor

Our step by step guide to what went on when in 1997

January

The year began with huge merger news: after being linked with startup Be, Apple said it planned to buy Steve Jobs' Next.

The first Pentium MMX PCs began to appear.

Macro viruses were on the rampage.

DRAM prices were jumping up.

Troubled Italian giant Olivetti sold its PC operation.

Compaq released a sub-£1,000 server, sparking a host of imitators, and said it planned to be the world's number three computer company by the year 2000.

Microsoft started the big IE 4.0 striptease.

Samsung said it planned to buy AST.

February

Andrew Grove joined the illustrious chorus of experts telling us Europe is behind the US in IT

The 56Kbps modems picture was beginning to get even nastier.

3Com said it was to purchase US Robotics, just one of several networking mergers and acquisitions.

March

56Kbps modems began to ship in numbers.

Microsoft and Intel led the bandwagon announcing the Net PC.

Intel sued Cyrix and AMD over the MMX nomenclature

April

AMD's K6 arrived.

Microsoft detailed PC98... and bought WebTV Networks.

On a lighter note, a tech mag fell for Tosh's left-handed notebook.

May

The first mention of 14.1-inch screen notebooks.

Just another instalment in a long-running squabble: Symantec accused McAfee of code theft.

Intel released 'Klamath', the Pentium II.

Digital sued Intel over chip patents.

Apple offloaded its Newton unit

Compaq planned to go direct

June

Microsoft said it would invest in Cambridge University to boost R&D

Hacker Kevin Mitnick got 22 months.

Research said 72 per cent of Web users hit on porn sites

Microsoft's presence in the UK Java Forum caused a rumpus.

AOL went flat rate.

July

Ascend and Cascade completed their merger.

Year 2000 bug frenzy was building.

A guy shot a PC.

Nat Semi bought Cyrix.

August

Viglen floated.

Tosh went into desktops.

Intel shipped the 440LX chipset.

September

Apple moved the goalposts on Mac cloners

AOL, CompuServe and WorldCom teamed up in a three-way deal

October

Microsoft and Viglen said they will jointly badge a home PC.

Hungry McAfee bought Network General

Sun sued Microsoft over Java 'abuse'

November

BBC launched a news Web site

Apple said it planned to sell direct

Cabletron said it would buy Digital networks business.

IBM plans to pioneer the sub-£1K PII PC

December

Intel leaked its 333MHz Deschutes plans

Labour did Microsoft a favour

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