* 1982
A small development team, named Hi-Toro, chose the codename
"Amiga" for a games console that will beat the Atari. The team
responsible for the development of the "Amiga" had 4 members: Jay
Miner , RJ Mical, Dave Morse and Carl Sassenrath.
In the beginning they sold other products to win the repsect of
their customers and to earn them some money while devloping the
Amiga. One of their first productions was "JoyBoard" a controller
that you used by sitting on it! There were many games for that,
but the best was "Zen Meditation" in which you have to stay
absolutely still. (Does the word "Meditation" means something to
you? Guru Meditation? ... YES! They used to say that if anything
goes wrong the only way to relax was by playing Zen Meditation!)
The codename "Amiga" was not choosen by luck. (Jay Miner didnt
like that name at the beginning) A story tells us that the team
didnt want to have a computerized name, such as SCOA16/II,
because they didn't want to be easily identified as a computer
development team.
The codename "Amiga" was the spanish name for girlfriend. They
continued this tactic and to the custom chips that they made
(Agnus, Portia, and Daphne). For the main CPU they used a
Motorola 68000 (16bit), the best CPU available in 1982. Slowly
their games machine was getting shape...
* 1983
Rumours about a super-computer, with the codename Lorraine (the
first Amiga, named for the HiToro president's wife) were
travelling across the USA. 1983 was the year that all the custom
chips were built. RJ Mical (the coder of the intution) wanted a
cheap games machine, but the others wanted the best computer.
Jay Miner was dreaming about a machine like the Amiga 2000, one
with lot of expansion slots. Jay Miner cooperated with Ron
Nicholson who gave the idea of the blitter. HAM was Jay Miner's
idea after a visit to some flight simulators (there was a chance
to leave HAM option outside of the first Amiga). $7,000,000 had
already been spent on the Amiga project.
* 1984
o January
C.E.S. (Consumer Electronics Show) took place at Chicago, USA.
The team introduced an Amiga (well... a huge pile of chips and
wires...) with the hope that they would find someone to invest in
their project. On January the 4th Dale and RJ Mical made the
first Amiga Demo ever, the famous "Boing" demo, a sphere with red
and white rectangles on it, bouncing on the screen. The "Amiga"
was only shown to selected "customers" and all the processing was
continued secretly.
o June
The Amiga Inc. team was trying to find a company to buy their
technology and to employ them, since they had run out of money.
Many companies were interested in the custom chips of the Amiga,
such as Sony, Apple, Philips, HP, etc.
Atari's president, Jack Tramiel, who had just left C=, because he
purchased Atari secretly, was trying to get his revenge by buying
Amiga inc. He lent Amiga Inc. $1,000,000, to be payed back one
month later. When the month was almost up, it became apparent
that Amiga Inc. would not be able to pay him back, so he offered
98 cents per share for the company. 0Amiga Inc. thought that this
was unacceptable, so they looked for someone else to buy them.
Just 2 days before the deadline, C= came in and began to talk to
Amiga Inc.
They managed to get C= to raise its bid to $4.25 a share, and
just before the deadline ended C= gave them $1,000,00 to pay back
Atari, on the condition that they would get to buy Amiga Inc.
* 1985
o July 23
The year that the "dream machine" came out when Amiga 1000
introduced in Lincoln Center at New York. Many people say that
this was the date that changed the future of computers.
(Multimedia ... back in 1985!)
o September
The Amiga 1000 shipped to its first customers.
It was the FIRST computer to use more than 16 color output as a
standard feature (4096 colors / HAM6 [Hold And Modify]). It was
also the first computer with preemptive multitasking OS. It
already had 4 channel digital stereo sound and the first computer
to ship with a mouse as a standard.
The kickstart was loaded from floppy. The price was about $2000
in the days where singletasking PC's (286) cost about $4000.
It only had one external expansion slot because Commodore wanted
to keep costs down.
At the same year the first issue of "Amiga World" made its debut.
It was the first Amiga magazine...
* 1986
The Amiga 1000 was finally launched in the UK.
The team beginned working on a new amiga model. They wanted it to
be more expandable, with a lot of slots and they wanted the slots
to be AutoConfig. They had to argue with C= once again, because
the autoconfig slots cost 50c more.
Two prototypes of the new model were developed. One in the Los
Gatos (USA) and one in Braunschweig (Germany). C= also wanted IBM
compatibility, so both teams tried to do the best to emulate an
IBM 8088. Jay Miner didn't like the idea.
Finally, the emulator came out from Germany. The "SideCar" was a
$1000 product, basically an IBM XT without a keyboard that was
plugged into the side of an Amiga 1000. The product that Los
Gatos was producing it was a $200 accelerator, for an IBM PC
software emulator.
Los Gatos helped the German team a lot with the emulator's
software.
The Los Gatos began working on a new "dream machine", no one knew
exactly what at that point.
The very same year, Mehdi Ali, was employed at Commodore as a
consultant for Dillon Reed by Irving Gould
* 1987
Finally the new amiga model was on production The name was just
the simple as A2000. The Amiga 2000 was bigger than the A1000 and
extremely expandable, with 5 Zorro II slots [5] (Zorro II) plus a
video slot.
It has been launched in the UK for 32000 (later 31500). The
kickstart was finally in ROM. A2000 was a base for other Amigas,
being released on various world markets, as the A1500 [A2000 with
two 3 1/2' drives], A2000HD, A2500/20, A2500/30, A2000HDA/100,
A1500 plus and A2000Plus.
Later the same year, the Amiga 500 was launched (3599 in the UK).
It was the same as the Amiga 2000, with a compact design
(keyboard and cpu in the same box) and no internal slots. Both
the machines had a new graphics mode, the EHB (Extra Half
Bright), that gives 64 colors on screen.
The operating system was 1.2. The Amiga 500 was the first really
affordable machine.
Scala founded in Norway.
* 1988
Jack Tramiel, returns, as Atari takes Commodore to court, by
claiming that it had given money to research the Amiga. The judge
supported Commodore, however
* 1989
Minor changes, to the chipsets. Agnus became Fat Agnus, and
later, Fatter Agnus, which can control 1mb chip Ram.
* 1990
The first fully 32bit system, with a 68030 and the ECS chipset
(fatter agnus), named the A3000, was launched in the UK for 33000
(later 32000)..
The Kickstart was 2.0. It had an onboard SCSI controller and
Zorro III slots. It was also available on a tower model, the
A3000T, and a UNIX model, the A3000UX. A flicker fixer was also
included so that the A3000 could easily be plugged in a VGA
monitor.
A few months later, the A500+ was released. It was a European
model, with ECS (Enchanced Chip Set), 1 Ram (expandable to 10mb),
and Workbench 2.0. The price was about 3399.
Both the systems had graphics mode of up to 1470x580 (4colors).
Kickstart 2.0, was a step forward. It occupied 512kb ROM (1.3 was
just 256kb), but there was not very much backwards compatibility
with 1.3. The compatibility problem was not Commodore fault,
however, but the fault of bad programming by coders.
* 1991
The first multimedia CDRom system, CDTV, was launced in the UK
for 3599. The CDTV was an A500 and kickstart 1.3 with a CD-Rom
drive. CDTV wass the shortened version of Commodore Dynamic Total
Vision (codename: "babe" as they were designing it for 9 months
:)). Commodore hoped to sneak it into the homes of
computerphobes. Commodore also didn't put the Amiga logo,
anywhere on the CDTV. As a result, CDTV failed to catch the
public's imagination, partly because it was 3200 more expensive
than an A500, and partly because the software was disappointing.
This year no more than 50 CD disks went on sale, but the games
was no better than the floppy disk versions. The CDTV was
operated by a user-friendly infra-red remote control. Later the
same year the option of turning the CDTV on a full A500 computer
was available. Maybe the market was not ready yet for that
multimedia revolution.
[A570, a CDROM drive for A500 released, before the end of the
year. The [major [problem was that all this years Commodore had a
stable system. [They had to do a major system upgrade
* 1992
o March
A600 launched in the UK for 3399. The CPU was still the Motorola
68000. So whats the difference between A600 and A500? First of
all it had a surface-mount technology (lower cost for Commodore).
RF and Composite output were also added. It was also the first
Amiga with an IDE controller (2 1/2') and a PCMCIA slot. The
major disadvantage was that it did not have a numeric keypad. An
A600HD was launched later that year.
Rumours about a new Amiga, with an advanced chipset, able to
support up to 16.7 million colors, were true! Commodore announced
the release of the new AGA chipset (Advanced Graphics
Architecture).
o September
At the world of Commodore Show (Pasadena California) in September
11, 1992, Commodore introduced the first machine with the AGA
chipset. As Commodore announced it was 'the company's most
significant new technology advancement in its Amiga line since
the product's introduction in 1985.'
At the W.O.C. they also announced AmigaDOS TM Release 3 Operating
System and 'AmigaVision TM' Professional Authoring System.
o December
The first machine with the new AGA technology was the A4000/040
launched in the UK for 32100. (USA $3699).
They replaced the SCSI controller with an IDE one (they included
a SeaGate ST3144A 3.5' 120mb HD - The HD was preformatted, with
an 8meg Workbench partition and a 116 Meg Work partition). The
floppy drive was a dual speed high density one. They also used
the SIMM technology for the memory upgrades, but all fast ram
simms must be on the same type. (Commodore used a 4mb SIMM for
the internal 4mb)
At the Christmas of 1992, the low-end AMIGA 1200, an A500 like
Amiga with the AGA chipset, was released as a low-cost machine,
with full 32 bit technology and 2mb Chip RAM. The machine nearly
missed the vital Christmas season, and although it did just make
it, not enough parts had been ordered to build an adequate
number. Christmas 1992 is a disaster. No one wants an ECS machine
and few can get one of the new 'AA' systems. (now called 'AGA')'.
David Haynie, an ex-engineer at the Pensylvania production plant,
states at his movie, named 'The Deathbed Vigil'.
The AMIGA 1200, was one of the most successful AMIGA computers.
It launched in the UK for 3399 (USA: $599). It also had the IDE
controller and the PCMCIA slot of the A600, plus a 32-bit
trapdoor expansion. It included Amiga Dos v3.0.1
Both Amiga 4000 and Amiga 1200 used the AGA chipset, able to
display 256 colors on hi-res displays, from a palette of 16,7
million colors. There is also a HAM-8 mode able to display
256.000+ colors (very close to 24bit display!). Compared to the
old ECS chips the new AGA chips are very fast, even on 256
colors!
Both Amiga 4000 and Amiga 1200, make use of AmigaDos v3.0!
AmigaDos 3.0 adds CrossDos as standard (a useful commodity that
helps you read and write on PC disks). It supports all the new
AGA graphic modes. WB 3.0 also supports 'datatypes,' a new
facility that allows programs to access data in an unlimited
number of formats, as long as you install a datatype that
understands the format. Another useful adition is the
Localization, so WB3.0 and programs using it can easily be on
multiple languages. A lot of usefull programms such as Multiview
(a viewer for every datatype) and Installer (a easy to use
install utility), are also supplied. A new filesystem is also
included, the DCFS. (Directory Caching File System). You could
also now use what every picture you like for a window or
workbench background.
A4000 with the Motorola 68040 wasn't so cheap that everyone could
afford it. So a little bit later, Commodore launched the
cheap-version of the A4000/040, the A4000/030, with a Motorola
68EC030.
Commodore was a very profitable company, especially in Europe and
it had a major power in computing, especially in Germany. But
what happened these years on the story background? Commodore
wasn't producing any hardware (except the basics) and they also
cut the production of the A500 plus and later the A600. Why?
Well, no one really knows...
* 1993
o March
Well... First issue of Amiga Report, online magazine ! 
o September
The very last machine of Commodore, the CD32, a games machine,
launched in the UK for 3299. It was the worlds first 32bit
console. It had a double speed CDRom Drive, 2mb Chip memory, AGA
chipset and the option of a FMV (Full Motion Video) module. But
once again the machine didnt make it. It had many sales but not
as many as they were needed to save the financial problems of
Commodore. Most of the games released were just CD conversions of
the original A1200/4000 ones, with no extra CD music, or FMV. The
Commodore situation was awful...
CD32 was the first (and the last?) machine using as standard,
Kickstart3.1.
(Released later as an upgrade for all Amiga machines.)
* 1994
Commodore had a financial damage of $107 million dollars by the
end of 1993. But the Amiga was still a very popular machine. In
1992, Commodore sold about 800.000 Amigas (17% more than 1991)
and in 1993, it sold 20% less.
Big problems made Commodore lose all that money : Fall of Amiga
periherals sales (Monitors,Printers etc.), the US $ and its price
fall on the major economic markets) and ... Me*di A*i (president
of the Commodore).
o March
Commodore, has announced that they were having financial
difficulties which might result in bankrupty or liquidation.
Commodore had lost $8.2 million. The stock fell to 0.75 per
share. The New York stock exchange halted trading of Commodore
stock!
o April
Until the middle of April, Commodore was still producing A4000s,
A1200s, and CD32s, and the engineers continued development of the
new AAA chipset. AAA was meant to be a big improvement over AGA.
24bit Graphics [resolutions up to 1280x1024], 16bit CD quality
audio and other interesting things. AAA was never truly finished.
During the second half of April the production of Amigas stopped.
The Philippines factory closed, but left behind a big stock of
Amigas. The Scotland factory also stopped the production. Many
employees were told by the management to hunt for new jobs...
o April,22
15 people were dismissed from West Chester (PA), and the
Commodore Semiconductor Group was closed. 15 people were also
dismissed from the Norristown factory.
o April,26
Engineering closed. The site in West Chester, once supported by
1000 employees, now had only 22 people left on it.
o April,29 (Friday)
Commodore International filed for liquidation in order to be
proteced from its creditors Friday April 29, 1994, at 4:10 P.M.
Commodore's official statement follows:
"Commodore International Limited announded today that its Board
of Directors has authorized the transfer of assets to trustees
for the benefit of its creditor and has placed its major
subsidiary, Commodore Electronics Limited, into voluntary
liquidation. This is the intial phase of an orderly liquidation
of bothe companies, which are incorporated in the Bahamas, by the
Bahamas Supreme Court."
"This action does not affect the wholly-owned subsidiaries which
include Commodore Business Machines (USA), Commodore Buisiness
machines LTD (Canada), Commodore/Amiga (UK), Commodore Germany,
etc. Operations will continue normally."
But how can the branches work without the head, of engineering
that designs and builds the new hardware and software ?
Few of the stuff knew about the bankrupty, till the next day when
they arrived at W.C.
o April,30
CEI announced that they would still supply and distribute Amigas
and should be able to meet demand, something that today seems
wrong, as there wasn't any stock available during the next
months.
o May
Rumors, rumors and rumors. Samsung was interested in buying
Amiga, but they dropped when they found out that other companies
interested offered less money than they did.
o June
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Jay Miner, passed away June 20, 1994 at the El Camino Hospital
In | | Mountain View. The actual cause of death was heart
failure, but it was | | the result of kidney complications. |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Many ex-Commodore employees moved to work for other companies
such as Scala (for example Dave Haynie that will oversee all
computer related hardware research and development activities in
Scalla offices).
CEI placed its bid for Commodore.
o July
Amiga Convention 94, took place in Quebec, Canada.
The liquidators had finally received four proposals to buy
Commodore, Those being Amstrad, Philips, Samsung and Commodore
UK. But the Bahamian court rejected the proposals to move the
proceedings to New York City, that was closer for any company
interested for Commodore.
o August
Commodore set 2 phone numbers for getting informations about the
current proceedings of the liquidation.
o September
Continues trough October and November Rumours about, Nestle,
Atari, Sony and other companies willing to buy Commodore.
More rumours for the day that the liquidation will commence.
This day is continously jumped from month to month.
CEI seemed to be more interested than any others and that is
represented by the online conferences held by Amiga Report, on
Portal, BIX, and Delphi.
CEI finally offers a big amount of money as long as the
liquidators give Commodore to them right away.
o December World Of Amiga Show held in the Webley stadium in UK.
C=UK claimed that they are prohibited to talk about the buyout
publicly. David Pleasance informed everyone that CEI had lost
their financial baking-up status. CEI never confirmed that
* 1995
o January
Rumors on UK magazines that C=UK got the highest bid. CEI again
gives a new bid to the liquidators.
o February CEI announced that they were signed an agreement with
IBM to have them manufacture Commodore products, for them if they
win Commodore.
Escom seems to be interested in Commodore.
o March
Techmedia Publishing, stopped the publishing of Amiga World, the
world's first Amiga Magazine. The primary reason was the 11
months Commodore liquidation and the magazine's low circulation.
The last issue of Amiga World was April 1995. The cancelation
came after the issue was completed so you will not find any
goodbyes and things like that on April's issue.
On the date that Amiga World's death is announced, the first
issue of Amiga Link online magazine is released.
Escom (a German based PC-clone maker) and the liquidator had
reached an agreement to make their bid the contract bid. The
contract bid was for $6 million, not counting the $1.4 million
they have paid for getting the Commodore's Logo from Commodore
Germany. Other offers were made for other parts of Commodore.
At last the judgement day of Amiga (or the auction date), was
set. It was April, 20th 1995. The companies that made it till
that day were Commodore UK, CEI and Escom.
o April
1 year after the liquidation... Geez! Time is short. 
Escom finally made it!
Snip----------------------------------
In the auction on April 20, only two companies had bid, Escom and
Dell
Escom was the German computer retailer, and Dell is a big
American computer company. CEI, long thought to be a bidder, had
thrown in their hat with Dell, so that Dell would work with CEI
on the Amiga, although CEI would be the ones running the show in
respects to the Amiga. Escom's bid was the starting bid of
approximately 5 million dollars, as well as the money they spent
on the C= trademark, approximately 1.3 million dollars. Dell made
a bid at 2 PM of an undiclosed amount. However, that bid was
rejected for Escom's bid, because it had conditions attached to
it, whereas Escom's bid was unconditional.
After the auction ended, and Escom's bid was accepted, Dell
continued to work on, trying to make a more suitable bid. Their
second bid was a $15 million bid, with the condition that they be
allowed a 30 day waiting period to look at the Amiga and decide
if they wanted to keep it. If they decided not to keep it, they
would forfeit their $1 million deposit, and the whole process of
getting another bidder would have to go on again.
In the hearing on Friday, April 21, the Creditor's Commitee
wanted to accept Dell/CEI's bid. However, Escom felt that was
unfair, because Dell's bid was placed after Escom's bid was
accepted. There was much legal wrangling, but finally, the judge
asked that during the recess the parties try to work out an
agreement. After 3 hours, the court re-adjurned, and Escom said
that they would agree to raise their bid by $6.5 million, to 12
million dollars. Although that was less than Dell/CEI's bid of
$15 million dollars, the Creditor's agreed to drop the objection
to stop Escom winning the Amiga, because Dell could back out of
the deal and then they'd have to go through the process again.
Escom has sales of approximately 2 billion dollars last year.
Commodore UK did not place a bid at the auction, apparently
because their backer dropped out. However, Colin Proudfoot of C=
UK and Escom have both stated that in 2 weeks they will be
holding talks as to Escom either liscencing Amiga technology to
C= UK, or, more likely, buying C= UK.
Escom has said that they will work with Amiga developers, user
groups, and the Internet to support the Amiga.
The Phillipine plant and stock in it wasn't included in the
auction, but it will most likely be sold to Escom for $1 million
soon, because it may actually be illegal to sell it to anyone
other than Escom. Joshua Galun Editor-in-Chief of Amiga Link
Magazine
Snip----------------------------------
o May
Escom held a conference in May 30th.
Escom announced the beginning of a new era for Amiga machines.
First of all Escom created a new division, called Amiga
Technologies. Their first priority is to resume the production of
the machines. They are expecting the new Amigas to be out on
September 1995.
They announced the production of an Amiga 4000/060 in a brand new
Tower case and the A4000/040 in tower also. In October they will
produce Amiga 1200s. They have also signed contracts with Scala,
so with every Amiga you can get for free a Scala MM300. The RISC
technology should be researched in 1996
o July
Escom held a conference in Philadelphia, PA Friday July 21,
regarding the distribution and pricing of the Amiga computer
platform in the United States. It was announced that the 4000T
would availby in the States by the first week of September.
o November 11
It is announced by Escom that the New Amiga will be powered with
the PowerPC Chip.
o November 28
SMG Press Release
Tuesday, November 28 At approximately noon today, the first
shipment of A4000T systems arrived at our warehouse. We are
turning these systems around immediately. Some dealers have
requested that part of their first orders be sent overnight. All
will be on their way to dealers tomorrow.
* 1996
o January
VISCORP agreement complete
Chicago - January 12, 1996 - Visual Information Service Corp.
(VISCORP), an INTERACTIVE TV developer headquartered in Chicago,
Illinois and AMIGA Technologies GmbH, headquartered in Bensheim,
Germany, have finalized an international license agreement to
adapt, utilize, license and distribute the AMIGA technology
within VISCORP's interactive intelligent set-top TV appliance -
Electronic Device (ED). The license authorizes VISCORP the right
to use, re-license and distribute the AMIGA operating system and
compatible parts of current versions of the technologies where
the AMIGA products are used as, or as part of, interactive
television devices.
o March 1
Escom Announced 125 Mio. DEM Loss Reasons given were the bad
christmas season 1995, a weaker demand for PCs, a general fall in
prices and initial losses for several acquisitions.
Escom AG shares dropped almost 18 percent after the company said
its banks and shareholders will inject 100 million deutsche marks
($86 million) to help it overcome a higher-than-expected 1995
loss.
A prototype of the new AMIGA was shown for the first time
worldwide at the CEBIT fair in Hannover, Germany.
o March 27
Manfred Schmitt removed as Escom CEO,Escom announced that the
board directors appointed Helmut Jost as the new Managing
director
Amiga Walker prototype on display at CeBit.
o April
Viscorp and Escom announce letter of understanding for
acquisition of Amiga technologies by Viscorp.
The letter states that Chicago-based VIScorp would acquire Amiga
Technologies, including the intellectual properties of the former
Commodore Business Machines, excepted Commodore trademarks.The
transaction value is approximately US $40 million.Terms were not
disclosed, and the pending acquisition would be subject to
approval by both companies' boards of directors.
o June
ESCOM AG and Visual Information Service Corp. announced they have
now signed the final agreement about the acquisition of Amiga
Technologies GmbH by VIScorp, subject to approval by their
boards.
o July 8
Escom AG, the giant German computer retailer that filed for
protection from creditors last week, said it plans to lay off
1,900 of its 4,440 European employees and close an undisclosed
number of stores.
o July 24
On Thursday, the 18th of July, 1996, the final contract of
purchase was signed between the bankruptcy trustee solicitor,
Bernhard Hembach, and the president and CEO of VIScorp, William
Buck, with approval of the 'pool of banks' for the entire
remaining inventory and intellectural property.
o August
On 20th August 1996, the trustee for the bankruptcy of ESCOM AG
and AMIGA Technologies GmbH, Bernhard Hembach, extended the
closing date for VIScorp's purchase of AMIGA for 30 days with the
support of ESCOM creditors.
o December
QuikPak placed an offer in front of the German liquidator for
Amiga Technologies,
Carl Sassenrath Quits VisCorp
* 1997
o March 27
Gateway 2000 Acquires Assets of Amiga Technologies GmbH
North Sioux City, South Dakota, March 27 1997 - Gateway 2000 Inc.
today announced that the company has made an offer to aquire the
assets of Amiga Technologies including all patents, trademaks and
trade names. The Company is a subsidary of ESCOM AG, a
German-based computer company that went into bankrupty in July of
1996. Amiga led the industry in combining computer graphics,
animation, and film sequences with stereo sound known today as
multimedia.
The offer has been accepted by the court-appointed Administrator
in Bankruptcy in Germany acting on behalf of AMIGA. The agreement
is subject to regulatory approval.
o March 31
Snip----------------------------------
Gateway 2000 Offer To Buy AMIGA Accepted
Monday March 31 10:00 AM EST
NORTH SIOUX CITY, S.D. - Gateway 2000 says its offer to acquire
the assets of AMIGA Technologies has been accepted by a
bankruptcy court in Germany. The value of the offer was not
disclosed.
AMIGA is a subsidiary of ESCOM, a German-based computer company
that filed for bankruptcy in July 1996. AMIGA's technology
combines computer graphics, animation, and film sequences with
stereo sound.
Gateway 2000's purchase includes patents, trademarks and trade
names.
The agreement is subject to regulatory approval.
AMIGA "will strengthen our intellectual property position and
invigorate a company that has been a pioneer in multimedia
solutions and operating systems technology," said Rick Snyder,
Gateway 2000 president, in a statement.
AMIGA will be renamed AMIGA International. The company will
operate as a separate business unit and will retain its current
president, Petro Tyschtschenko, who will work to develop new
products for the AMIGA market.
"Gateway 2000 will give us new life and energy for the future,"
said Tyschtschenko, in a statement.
Gateway 2000 is a direct marketer of personal computers. It
shipped 1.9 million systems in 1996 and reported revenues of $5
billion.