Computer history - 1997
Major computer events in 1997
IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) introduced 802.11, the wireless (Wi-Fi) network standard in June 1997.
Steve Jobs rejoined Apple on September 16, 1997.
1997 computer and technology top terms
The following are some top computer and technology-related terms in alphabetical order that were introduced or popularized during 1997.
New computer products and services introduced in 1997
The third generation of Pentium processors, code-named P55C, was introduced in January 1997, incorporating the new technology MMX (MultiMedia eXtension).
The first revision of the ATX (advanced technology extended) standard (version 2.01) was released in February 1997.
Intel released the NLX (new low profile extended) motherboard in March 1997.
AMD released its K6 processor line in April 1997, with speeds of 166 MHz to 300 MHz and a 66 MHz bus speed.
Winamp was released on April 21, 1997.
Intel Pentium II was introduced on May 7, 1997.
Perl 5.004 was released on May 15, 1997.
The game Blood was released on May 31, 1997.
The MMORPG (massively-multiplayer online role-playing game) UO (Ultima Online) was released on September 24, 1997.
Microsoft released Internet Explorer 4.0 in September 1997.
Age of Empires was released on October 15, 1997, by Ensemble Studios. The game became popular, selling over 20 million copies worldwide. Its success resulted in the release of several sequels, a spin-off game series titled Age of Mythology, and a port to the Nintendo DS for two game releases. It also influenced other real-time strategy games, like Rise of Nations and Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds.
Riven, the sequel to Myst, was released in October 1997.
The first installment in the Grand Theft Auto series was by DMA Design on October 21, 1997.
FruityLoops was released on December 18, 1997. The program would later become FL Studio.
IBM introduced Netfinity, a new line of enterprise PC (personal computer) servers beginning with the Netfinity 7000 supporting the Microsoft Windows NT computing environment.
IBM introduced the IntelliStation, a line of Microsoft Windows NT-based workstations for commercial users.
IBM announced the world's highest-capacity desktop OPC disk drive. The 16.8-gigabyte drive incorporated breakthrough technology called GMR (giant magnetoresistive) heads.
IBM introduced eSuite, Lotus became the first company to offer a complete set of business productivity software written in Java for the network computing environment.
Intel introduced the microATX form factor in December 1997.
Intel introduced AC'97 in 1997.
Microsoft released Excel 97 in 1997.
Sony released the first DualShock controller.
Apple introduced the first Power Macintosh G3 desktop in November 1997.
The video game Constructor was released.
Microsoft released Microsoft Office 97.
Macromedia introduced Dreamweaver.
Microsoft announced Windows 98 and Active Desktop.
Apple released macOS 8.
Caldera Linux was introduced in 1997.
CD-RW (compact disc re-writable) drives and media were introduced.
OpenLinux was released by Caldera Systems (now known as the SCO Group) in 1997.
HyperCam was released in 1997 by Hyperionics and Solveig.
Intel introduced the MMX chip.
Intel introduced the Slot 1 processor and slot.
The Symbian mobile operating system was released by Nokia.
Yahoo! introduced Yahoo Mail.
The Intel Pentium II, 233 MHz processor, was released.
Microsoft Windows CE 2.x was released.
Microsoft Word 97 was released in 1997.
Microsoft released Visual Basic 5.0.
PXI (PCI extensions for instrumentation) was introduced in 1997 by National Instruments.
Carsten Haitzler released Enlightenment.
The 98 update was applied to the Haskell programming language.
Dell released the XPS D series in 1997.
Computer and technology-related events in 1997
HTTP/1.1 was specified in RFC 2616 and officially released in January 1997.
The world learned of Dolly, the first successfully cloned mammal, on February 22, 1997.
The PNG (portable network graphics) format was defined in RFC 2083 in March 1997.
Microsoft merged Video for Windows into DirectX 5, then began calling it DirectShow in March 1997.
A cult known as the Heaven's Gate, which earned its money from designing websites, committed mass suicide on March 27, 1997.
IBM's Deep Blue computer defeated world champion chess player Garry Kasparov on May 11, 1997, in their second six-game showdown, winning the tie-breaking game in only 62 minutes.
Sierra Semiconductor announced a name change to PMC-Sierra, Inc. on June 9, 1997. The trading symbol for the publicly traded company on the NASDAQ National Market also changed from "SERA" to "PMCS."
The Mars Pathfinder successfully landed on Mars on July 4, 1997. The NASA Pathfinder website showing real-time images sent from the Pathfinder on Mars received more than 100 million hits during its first four days. In response to the popularity, NASA set up 25 mirror pages to handle the traffic. The site set a new popularity record.
Microsoft released DirectX 5.0 (4.05.00.0155) on July 16, 1997.
Advanced Graphics Port or AGP (accelerated graphics port) designed for video cards was released by Intel in August 1997.
The google.com domain name was registered after Sergey Brin and Larry Page decided to change the name of its BackRub search engine to Google on September 15, 1997.
The FBI released Carnivore, the first instance of policeware in the United States, in October 1997.
The client-side scripting language ECMAScript was released.
The first paywall was introduced by the Wall Street Journal.
The CD (compact disc) burning software Nero was released.
Unwired Planet developed HDML (handheld device markup language).
Sun Microsystems released the Java Database Connectivity API (application programming interface) in 1997.
Connectix introduced Virtual PC in 1997.
Quantum Teleportation was first successfully achieved, bringing quantum computing closer to reality.
ATA-3 was approved by ANSI (American National Standards Institute) in 1997.
The Slashdot website launched in 1997.
The first black hat conference was held in 1997.
Nick Szabo coined the term smart contract in 1997.
Internet2 consortium was established in 1997.
Several computer manufacturers introduced sub 1,000 computers, which cost less than $1,000.
AOL faced several lawsuits from subscribers upset about the difficulties encountered when connecting to its services.
The dancing baby became one of the Internet's first fads. The dancing baby was a short 3D animation of a small dancing baby wearing diapers. It was first created by Michael Girard and later tweaked by Ron Lussier at LucasArts, who released it on a CompuServe forum as chacha.avi.
Altavista introduced its free online translator, Babel Fish, in 1997.
Digital Video Discs, aka DVDs (Digital Versatile Discs), first went on sale in 1997.
IBM computer Deep Blue beat chess master Garry Kasparov for the first time on May 11, 1997. The updated version of IBM Deep Blue defeated Kasparov 3½–2½ in a highly publicized six-game match.
Bill Gates became the world's richest businessman in 1997.
The concept of a CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) was invented in 1997.
Fortran 95 was introduced in 1997.
Microsoft began working on a new search engine in 1997.
The command nmap was released in 1997.
The first true social media website is considered to be SixDegrees.com, created in 1997 by Andrew Weinreich.
The term ICT (information and communications technology) was popularized in 1997.
The TRUSTe organization was founded in 1997.
The Li-ion battery was first used for commercial uses.
Computer companies and organizations founded in 1997
Kibble changed its name to Netflix and was established on August 29, 1997.
ABBYY was founded in 1997.
AmbiCom Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1997.
Belarc was founded in 1997.
Billionton Systems was founded in 1997.
Chassis Plans was founded in 1997.
Club 3D was founded in 1997.
Cyrix was established in 1997.
Dot Hill Systems was founded in 1997.
Dynapower USA was founded in 1997.
E ink was established in 1997.
GoDaddy was founded in 1997.
HTC was founded in 1997.
The international non-profit organization ICVolunteers was founded in 1997.
Kaspersky was founded in 1997.
L-3 Communications Holdings was founded in 1997.
Leoptics was founded in 1997.
Ligos was founded in 1997.
Mediatek was founded in 1997.
NCSOFT was founded in 1997.
Netflix was established in 1997.
Nullsoft was founded by Justin Frankel in 1997.
PowerColor was founded in 1997.
Velocity Micro was founded in 1997.
Webroot Software was founded in 1997.
WinChip was founded in 1997.
Yandex was founded in 1997.
Zebronics was founded in 1997 by Rajesh Doshi.
Computer company events in 1997
Phoenix acquired NJK (Nihon Joho Kenkyujo) on January 2, 1997.
Microsoft announced plans to buy WebTV Networks on April 6, 1997, for $425 million. The deal was later approved and completed in August.
Compaq purchased Microcom in April 1997.
National Semiconductor acquired Cyrix in July 1997.
Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple Computers Inc. on August 6, 1997, and agreed to continue creating software for Apple computers. In agreement, Apple made Microsoft Internet Explorer its browser for Macintosh computers.
AOL (America Online) acquired CompuServe on September 8, 1997.
The OPTi Audio business was sold to Creative Technology in November 1997 and is now under the Ectiva group.
Creative Technology Ltd. acquired Ensoniq on December 10, 1997.
Micropolis went out of business on December 10, 1997.
Microsoft acquired Hotmail, a free e-mail service, in December 1997.
In December 1997, DEXXA sold its scanner business to Storm Technologies.
Tseng Labs was purchased by ATI (now a part of AMD) in December 1997.
3Com bought U.S. Robotics for $6.6 billion, making the consolidation the largest in the history of computer companies.
Banksia and NetComm merged in late 1997.
CompUSA joined Dell and Gateway in selling build-to-order computers in 1997.
EIA (Electronic Industries Alliance) changed its name from Electronic Industries Association in 1997.
Gravis was acquired by Kensington in 1997.
IBM acquired Eastman Kodak's share of Technology Service Solutions, formed in 1994 by IBM and Eastman Kodak. TSS became a wholly-owned subsidiary of IBM.
Network Associates was formed after a merger between McAfee and Network General.
Post-Newsweek Cable was renamed to Cable One in 1997. Today, the company is known as Sparklight.
Systemax Inc. acquired Midwest Micro in 1997.
Zoran acquired ComCore Multimedia in 1997.
Internet domains that came online in 1997
The domain facebook.com came online on March 28, 1997.
The domain craigslist.com came online on September 24, 1997.
The domain netflix.com came online on November 10, 1997.
Discontinued products and services in 1997
Mosaic development and support was officially discontinued on January 7, 1997.
The NewsPad project was ended in 1997.
Computer pioneer deaths in 1997
Jean Hoerni passed away on January 12, 1997 (Age: 73).
Mina Rees passed away on October 25, 1997 (Age: 92).
Cyril Cleverdon passed away on December 4, 1997 (Age: 83).
John Pinkerton passed away on December 22, 1997 (Age: 78).