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Stacy X

Stacy X (real name Miranda Leevald) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Joe Casey and artist Tom Raney, she first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #399 (November 2001), when she was known as X-Stacy, and later became known as Ripcord. Stacy X belongs to the subspecies of humans called mutants, who are born with superhuman abilities. She was briefly affiliated with the X-Men and was later known as a member of the New Warriors.

Publication history
Stacy X made her debut in Uncanny X-Men #399 (November 2001), created by Joe Casey and Tom Raney.

Fictional character biography
Stacy-X first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #399 (November 2001). Her real name is Miranda Leevald, and she has the mutant ability to exude pheromones which she could control to stimulate bodily sensations and functions of others, such as causing orgasms or vomiting. Her mutation also had a physical manifestation: at the age of sixteen Stacy's skin was replaced by patterned, snake-like scales. At one point, her skin was shown shedding much like a real snake's. She later became known as Stacy-X.

She first appeared as a member of the Nevada mutant brothel, the X-Ranch. After the hate group the Church of Humanity destroys the ranch, Stacy joins the X-Men. Forthright and argumentative, Stacy did not take easily to teamwork and left the team shortly after joining. She plays a vital role in fighting Black Tom, using her powers to seduce him and releasing the other trapped X-Men, allowing them to defeat him. She also proved to be a highly skilled fighter, even giving Wolverine a proper workout. Where she got this training is unknown, much like everything else about her past.

Soon after the events at the X-Ranch, Stacy stayed at the Institute. She took some time off after "servicing a special client" in Chappaqua, New York. Wolverine tracked her down and fought with her, but soon the two came to an understanding. Whether Wolverine convinced Stacy to completely abandon her former profession is unknown, but he did talk Nightcrawler out of whatever censure he was contemplating. It was known that Stacy continued to work for "special clients" even as she operated as a member of the X-Men. Furthermore, during her membership with the X-Men she tried to seduce members Archangel and Nightcrawler.

She became a team member who was highly depended upon. At one point when Chamber and Nightcrawler were stranded in the mountains, Chamber telepathically communicated with Stacy X to alert her of where they were located. While she brought help, she was upset that Chamber invaded her mind without permission until he told her she was the only one he thought would believe him.

At one point, Stacy works with a food magnate who is very sick. He reveals himself as a mutant with debilitating mutations: advanced aging has made him old before his time, and he has developed an immunity to all painkillers. She changes his body chemistry so that he will live out the rest of his short life without pain.

After a spat with Paige Guthrie (alias Husk), caused by the fact that they both had feelings for Archangel, Stacy decides to leave the mansion. (She knew about Paige's love as she could see her lust with her ability to see people's emotions through their pheromones.) However, she left behind for Archangel a video of herself jumping rope naked, stating that she did not want to stay around them. Rather, this will indicate to him that he missed the chance to have had someone as sexy as herself as a girlfriend, instead of Paige.

Decimation and New Warriors
Due to the Scarlet Witch's magic, Stacy is one of the many mutants to lose her powers after the events of Decimation. While she was a prostitute when she had her powers, she never actually slept with anyone for money, relying on her pheromone powers. Since she lost her powers, this has apparently changed.

She becomes a member of the reformed New Warriors under the codename Ripcord. The circumstances of how she joined are not completely revealed, but her attitude and statements show that she wanted to change her life, and going back to being a hero seems like the path she chose best to do it. Besides being given artificial powers to replace what she lost, she apparently also has lost her leftover scaled skin. She was killed in an accident along with Skybolt.

Vengeance
Stacy X mysteriously re-appears later. She is shown having a three-way sexual encounter with Welsh pop star Sugar Kane (Chamber's onetime girlfriend) and new character Ultimate Nullifier in a high-rise hotel room after they are at a nightclub. The trio is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Magneto, who seeks to discipline Stacy for what he considers to be her disgraceful decadence which is embarrassingly tarnishing the collective image of Earth's too few remaining mutants. Magneto proceeds to magnetically thrash the room and toss all of them around. However, Ultimate Nullifier engages in combat with Magneto while Stacy and Sugar Kane make their escape. Successfully subduing Magneto by depowering him with a power-dampening gun and beating him with formidable martial arts skills, Ultimate Nullifier then reveals to Magneto that he was actually secretly acting as a bodyguard to Stacy and that it is his mission to protect her from Magneto.

Powers and abilities
Stacy X can produce sensations and physical reactions in anyone, such as orgasms, vomiting or adrenaline rushes, and can heal others by speeding up their healing process, due to the pheromones she secretes. Initially, she had to make physical contact to produce these sensations and physical reactions. Later, she became able to influence others without making direct contact with others, by launching her pheromones through the air.

Stacy X has a scaly, snake-like skin, which increases her durability, although the limit of her durability has never been demonstrated.

Additionally, she is an expert fighter, having some martial arts abilities, and was able to even challenge Wolverine.

Accolades

 * In 2010, ComicsAlliance ranked Stacy X 3rd in their "5 Superheroes Who Used Their Powers For Sex" list.
 * In 2014, Entertainment Weekly ranked Stacy X 92nd in their "Let's rank every X-Man ever" list.
 * In 2014, BuzzFeed ranked Stacy X 84th in their "95 X-Men Members Ranked From Worst To Best" list.
 * In 2017, Screen Rant included Stacy X in their "15 Superheroes Marvel Wants You To Forget" list.
 * In 2018, DirecTV included Stacy X in their "8 Marvel Characters That Should Join Deadpool Movie Universe" list.
 * In 2020, Scary Mommy included Stacy X in their "Looking For A Role Model? These 195+ Marvel Female Characters Are Truly Heroic" list.
 * in 2021, Looper included Stacy X in their "Best Marvel Mutant Powers Not Used For Fighting" list.

Ultimate Marvel
In the Ultimate Marvel reality, Ultimate Stacy X is introduced in Ultimate X-Men as the girlfriend of Mastermind, and she stays with him in the cell where he is currently impersonating Magneto, replacing Mystique (who was doing the same after he escaped during the events of the "Magnetic North" storyline). In Ultimate Comics: X-Men she is seen in Camp Angel, camps where mutants are forced to live by the government in the aftermath of the Ultimatum Wave. She considers herself a political prisoner of war and urges mutants into revolution.

Film

 * Stacy X was originally supposed to appear in the third X-Men film, X-Men: The Last Stand, with Dania Ramirez auditioning for the character.

title: Stacy X


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Talk:TI-99/4A

Content merge
I merged content from TI99/4A. Does it still read well? --Timc 14:56, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Other opinions
This is a nice article, but it isn't all that honest. Don't get me wrong, I have a certain fondness for the TI, and I've written an emulator for it... but it was never a usable or competitive computer.

The TI-99 wasn't "technologically competitive", especially after the IBM PC was released. Even though it had a 16-bit CPU, its severely crippled video display capabilities, lack of directly addressable RAM, and restricted programming capabilities made it a poor choice for any serious applications. Even a 6502-based machine at 1mhz could run rings around it. — 12.103.251.203  07:56, 4 September 2005 (UTC) — continues after insertion below

 * Keep in mind that the TI was never meant to compete in the same market as the IBM PC, predates it by two years, and cost 1/6th the price of a PC! The TI-99/4 was originally designed at a time when it was assumed that the general public would want a computer for doing their taxes and playing video games; Texas Instruments (and many others) were caught by surprise when the home computer revolution spawned computer hobbyists who actually wanted to learn how to program in Assembly. :) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.138.194.68 (talk) 06:03, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

 * There exists information that states the TI-99 was original to be a game machine, a project between TI and Milton Bradley (which made a lot of the early games). As a game console, it would not need a lot of RAM... all the games would have been cartridge-based. The video chip (TMS9918, and later the TMS9918A) would have been perfect for games. Ti99 forever (talk) 11:54, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

Its graphics capabilities were, frankly, horrible! Yes, it had a lot of sprites... and that's about all. Programs couldn't really do much graphically, thanks to the unavoidably slow VDP access. (It could easily take 30-40 microseconds to update one pixel, while on most of the then-current 8-bit machines screen contents could be updated at CPU clock rates during HBI/VBIs.) Lack of rational bitmapped graphics modes didn't help either. Scrolling was a serious challenge.

Lack of useful collision detection between sprites made them astoundingly useless for games, as all the VDP could tell you was that two or more sprites overlapped--not which ones! Programs rarely used most of the sprites, because only four of them could appear on any given scanline (the rest were blanked); witness Pole Position's awful monochromatic "enemy cars". There's no way it competed graphically with either the C64 or the Atari, at least not in terms of natively usable horsepower. — 12.103.251.203  07:56, 4 September 2005 (UTC) — continues after insertion below

 * The C64 was introduced in 1982, the Atari 400/800 also in 1982. Remember that the TI's closest contemporary competition was the 1977 Apple II which was designed (and priced!) as a business computer, the equally expensive business-oriented PET, and the VIC-20 which can only be dismissed as lame (with the aluminized cardboard RF shields in the VICtim-20/C-64 versus the nickel-plated steel in the TI, your analogy is like comparing a Hyundai with an automobile). The /4 was introduced in 1979 and was extremely competitive in its day; the /4A was an enhanced but mostly software-compatible replacement which didn't sacrifice compatibility (after all, users weren't interested in understanding why their new computer wouldn't run the software already available for it).

 * Furthermore, Pole Position is a bad example. It was released by Atarisoft, based on reverse engineering of the machine rather than by actual formal documentation from TI.

 * I flaw TI on a few things, the biggest of them being the lack of schematics and other technical documentation being provided by TI. They didn't know any better at the time and wanted to corner the market. I flaw TI for not extending the 16 bit bus out to the expansion port so that multiplexed and 16 bit RAM expansions (and other 16-wide peripherals) could be optionally available. (I think I'd call one "Basic RAM Expansion" and the other "Turbo RAM Expansion", but this is with over 25 years of hindsight in the personal/home computer marketplace under my belt.) I flaw TI on the double-interpreted BASIC (BASIC -> GPL -> machine code). I flaw TI for not having added a video input jack and genlock into the machine, since the VDP was capable of external sync and the VCR and home video cameras were just starting out and it would have been an exclusive to be able to corner the market on titling your own home movies (ie. a Video Toaster 6 years ahead of its time). I flaw TI for not having a decent (bigger than 48 key) keyboard - surely at least some prospective home computer users had taken touch typing courses. And I flaw TI for not making all graphics modes available directly from BASIC interpreter built into the machine. But hey, hindsight is 20/20; at the time, no one cared - what still blows my mind is that TI actually stuffed a 16-bit processor in there, they must have had an 8 bit processor which would have been cheaper to use!

 * Finally, as an electrical engineer with an understanding of marketing, what really blows me is TI's advertising. TI was good at selling to engineers - and still is - all I want is specifications. While TI was showing a picture of a TI-99/4A on the box, Commodore's box was a big and colorful thing showing "Commodore VIC-20 - With color and music!" (nb. less colors, less resolution, and less voices - to say nothing of RAM or CPU horsepower which 1981 K-Mart shoppers didn't understand). Amazingly enough, TI didn't even mention the 16 bit processor (I can see the ad line: "Double the bits, double the power!" Let alone "Two cassette ports built in! Two Joystick ports built in!", etc.) on the boxes or in *any* North American advertising that I saw as a TI user and afficionado during the home computer era.

 * Summarizing TI's faults: lack of 16 bit bus extended to the expansion port allowing high-speed expansion; lack of a video input jack which would have cost an LM1881, one capacitor, and two resistors; lack of any idea how to sell *anything* (let alone computers) to the unwashed, ignorant and uncircumcised masses; and lack of technical documentation with the understanding that this would promote platform development and therefore sales. But hey, it was 1979. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.138.194.68 (talk) 06:03, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

 * You can speed up the memory access to the video processor by performing access during the access window (same as a VBI), or by toggling certain functions off (setting the BLANK bit, which hides the screen... turning off VDP interrupts, sound processing interrupt, etc). Finding which sprites overlapped was not hard -- just read the x-y coordinates into RAM and compare.

 * As for the 16-bit processor... it was originally going to house an 8-bit TMS9985 chip, the predecessor of the TMS9995 used in the unreleased TI-99/8 and in the Myarc Geneve 9640. But the TMS9985 was a failure, and TI had to stick the older TMS9900 in which required static RAM chips (the 9985 had internal RAM), and then they had to add logic to the motherboard (multiplexer) to convert between 16-bit and 8-bit. Bad part is, being the 9900 came out in 1976 -- even though it was 16-bit -- it performed those operations as two 8-bit cycles! Ti99 forever (talk) 11:54, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

But the computer's true "Achilles' heel" was that TI didn't want anyone writing machine-language programs for it! TI only officially authorized GROM-based programs, which ran very, very slowly (both because they only supported serialized data access and because they were interpreted). Its built-in BASIC was one of the worst on the market, and the fact that it was also GROM-based didn't help. — 12.103.251.203  07:56, 4 September 2005 (UTC) — continues after insertion below
 * Agreed. You could almost hear the tic-tic-tic of that thing incrementing the address register when simply running { 10 CALL CLEAR :: 20 A=A+1 :: 30 PRINT A :: 40 GOTO 20 }. Again defending TI, I think the focus was more about user friendliness (big title graphics and menu, etc.) because no one thought that speed or power were actual selling features. (Killer is the VIC-20, new in box in my closet, never used: "VIC-20: The FRIENDLY computer" would just disply "4021 BYTES READY" if it were powered up.) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.138.194.68 (talk) 06:03, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

 * GPL (GROM-based programs) actually run very fast. About the speed of other machine's BASICs. The GPL interpreter is written in assembly, after all. BASIC was slow because it was written in GPL (double interpretation), AND programs resided in VDP RAM, which is much slower than CPU RAM. Ti99 forever (talk) 11:54, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

TI Logo, one of the more memorable software products for the machine, was simultaneously a pinnacle of absurdity. Because of the lack of memory it had to place restrictions on what could be drawn on screen. If the on-screen display became too complex (more than 256 unique tiles) you'd get an "out of ink" error. (Remember, the computer had no native RAM to speak of; video memory had to be shared with the Logo program. If it had used a true bitmapped display it wouldn't have had enough memory left for any significant programs. TI Logo-II got around this by requiring a PE box plus memory expansion.) — 12.103.251.203  07:56, 4 September 2005 (UTC) — continues after insertion below

 * First off, the RAM expansion was available without buying the PEB ("PE Box"), it was a popular standalone option. — 216.138.194.68  06:03, 5 February 2006 (UTC) — continues after insertion below

 * "Out of ink error" occurred because bitmapped mode was not used. Logo could be used with the 99/4 and the 99/4A, the 99/4 not having a bitmap mode. Plus, bitmap mode consumes *a lot* of memory. Logo requires *a lot* of memory. So in Turtle mode, Logo was actually redefining characters, and there are only 256 characters in the character set. And both Logo and Logo II required the 32k memory expansion. Ti99 forever (talk) 11:54, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

 * TI Logo was neither memorable nor popular, though I don't think it had anything to do with that - I don't think Logo was popular at all outside of schools. TI did release *many* cartridges which allowed full bitmaps - Parsec, Alpiner, etc. - which included static RAM to alleviate the VDU RAM issue. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.138.194.68 (talk) 06:03, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

 * The above statemnt is not correct. Neither Parsec nor Alpiner had static RAM.  Both had GROMs and ROMs, but no RAM.  The only cartridge with static RAM was MiniMemory. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.221.222.142 (talk) 15:39, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Frankly, it's truly impressive to see just how slowly a 16-bit CPU can be made to run. The 9900 had some great ideas (if nothing else, register windows!) but the 99/4A hardware or software never took advantage of any of them. — 12.103.251.203  07:56, 4 September 2005 (UTC) — continues after insertion below

 * The machine was actually quite fast when running *anything* with real CPU RAM, despite the 8/16 clusterfsck; certainly competitive with anything in its day and even extending beyond (C-64, etc.). I highly agree, though, neither hardware nor software did anything with it. I can understand the lack of CPU RAM in the console (even a few k was very expensive in a day when it was assumed that most users wouldn't care about a computer's speed). But okay, so let's make the expansion port 8 bits wider - that's a cheap card-edge connector and a few more traces on the PC board; so far, we're not breaking the bank and we've got future possibilities - why the hell didn't they do it? Dunno. Maybe even sell a 16-bit 32k RAM expansion at cost to promote the machine?

 * GROM itself makes sense for most users (who will never buy expansion peripherals, I guess they figured), but I really think the BASIC interpreter should have been in ROM.

 * (Note to non-TI experts: GROM is "Graphics" ROM, a self-incrementing ROM developed by TI, and which was usually relatively small and cheap at the expense of speed. A common hack with the 99/4A is to desolder the BASIC GROM and replace it with the GROM from the Disk Manager 2 cartridge, effectively building DM2 into the console.)

 * And finally, the register windows. Yeah, registers in RAM were great (a TMS9900 feature). I've seen many upon many TI programs which took advantage of the near-instant context switches, allowing the machine to multitask based on the human-imperceptible vertical interrupt coming from the TMS9918. There's lots of TI-99/4 and TI-99/4A software using this feature. What year did DesqView come out? (I dunno, I was using my TI-99/4A until 1990 when I bought an Amiga, and that until 2000 when Linux was finally viable as an operating system for the x86 platform.) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.138.194.68 (talk) 06:13, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

The final stake in its heart was the lack of affordable expansion capabilities, as most of the interesting expansions required the absurdly expensive PE box (basically a card cage with a power supply... only $900 or so). — 12.103.251.203  07:56, 4 September 2005 (UTC) — continues after insertion below

 * 32k RAM expansion, disk controller (3 drives without the sleazy Commodore I-can't-believe-it's-not-a-cassette serial interface speed issues), RS-232 port (2 serial, one parallel), and the most popular speech synthesizer were all available without using the PEB. Admittedly, the PEB was insanely expensive, but it was also insanely overbuilt; I suspect TI Micro farmed out the design to TI Mini... or maybe even TI Military. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.138.194.68 (talk) 06:03, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

 * One should realize that the Peripheral Expansion System was not always expensive. In late 1982, TI had a promotional offer. Buy an expansion system with your choice of two from 32K memory expansion, RS232 card or Disk controller+1 drive for $400. And the choice of TI-Writer word processor or Microsoft Multiplan. The PES (as it was named by TI) had only been introduced a few months before. This was no "fire sale". Ti99 forever (talk) 11:54, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

The 99/4a was intended to be very cheap to produce hardware-wise, hence the serialized ROMS, VDP and such. But it never reached that goal for a couple of reasons: the promised 8-bit version of the 9900 CPU didn't happen so they had to release it with an expensive 16-bit version, and there was very little interest in their other serialized hardware chips so they were never that economical to produce. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.103.251.203 (talk) 07:56, 4 September 2005 (UTC)

 * And yet again, TI was well ahead of their time. USB. Firewire. Serial ATA. Texas Instruments HexBUS interface. The Texas Instruments TI-99/4A. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.138.194.68 (talk) 06:03, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
 * And there's still nothing like the flicker of the PEB's access lights then the clunk-clunk-clunk of the old Shugart reading 90k off what now seems to be a ridiculously oversized diskette on hardware which is now as old as many of my coworkers. To t1heir credit, the PEB, TI Color Monitor, the console, and all other TI-built home computer hardware I've ever owned have never suffered a hardware failure. I still have a console, "Wired Remote Controllers" (joysticks), speech sythesizer and cartridge drawer in my living room, and another system (complete with PEB, CorComp disk controller and Horizon RAMdisk) beside the machine I'm currently using. (It's part of my homage to Generation X.) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.138.194.68 (talk) 06:13, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Please summarize your point, and please sign ur comments. --Soumyasch 10:42, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

TI and the Education Market
When I went shopping for a home computer in 1983, the guy at the TI store asked me if I were a teacher. I admitted that I'd taught 7th-9th grades for a year and a half three years ago, and presently taught an occasional college course in the evening. Well, that was enough to get me a small discount on a 99/4A. I think I paid something like $200 plus tax for the basic machine.

I regretted that decision pretty quickly when I learned that ANY expansion of my system was going to cost a thousand bucks. Sure you can get a disk drive ($250). . . and you'll need a disk controller ($300) and the peripheral expansion box. (a million dollars) More memory? Same deal. Printer? Take out a loan. (TI was trying to bury the stand-alone expansion items and didn't talk about these.) I bought a Commodore 64 for serious work, and it cost me a lot less.

 * In late 1982, an expansion system package was available for $400. Your choice of two of the following: 32k memory card, disk controller (with disk drive) or RS232 card. And you got to pick as a bonus either the TI Writer word processor or Microsoft Multiplan. As the RS232 card had both serial and parallel, and these were universal interfaces, you didn't have to buy a TI printer. Ti99 forever (talk) 12:02, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

However, the TI-99/4A was well adapted (with Extended Basic and the Speech Synthesizer) for writing simple games and learning tools for my young son to use. The kid knew the alphabet before he was a year old due to playing with a simple thing I'd written to display a letter enlarged and speak its name. The cartridges were easily swapped in and out, so he could play different games (many of these learning-oriented) without getting bored.

TI continued to support "teachers," however nominal. When my old console had problems several years later, they took the battered, dusty old model in trade for a brand new one at no additional cost, due to some clause in the original deal.WHPratt (talk) 14:13, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

 * TI had a very nice policy on repairs. Up to the end and beyond (1983) you could send in your unit, get a replacement, and at most pay $50. Ti99 forever (talk) 12:02, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

wot no picture?
Anyone fancy adding a picture to this article? --Rebroad 16:44, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

Also, I want to add the hardware palette file relevant to this computer. WikiPro1981X (talk) 14:10, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

games section?
What about having a section in the article on the TI's (most popular) games, such as Parsec, TI Invaders, Munch-man (Munch Man or Munchman?), and Car Wars. Those four stand out to me. 24.222.121.193 01:17, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

Arthurvasey (talk) 23:55, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

We bought a TI 99/4A out of the local paper once - it came with cartridges for Invaders, Munch Man and Parsec - it also came with some demo cassettes with games like Space Cities - they were written in BASIC, so you could rewrite the programs - my brother managed to add a line or two where you could input how many lives you wanted - he put about a million in and it came up as a funny number - something like "115E+20" or something weird like that.

There was a game involving tanks - took AGES to load.

There were also two programmes which looked like promising games - but "Firework Night" was nothing more than a recreation of a rocket firework being launched into the air on a loop and "Merry Christmas" was an intricately designed program that, in large letters, flashed up "MERRY XMAS" on the screen on a loop.

My brother tried to design a program for Yahtzee - but the repeated use of GOTO and GOSUB in the program caused it to keep saying "MEMORY FULL".

 * You probably had some recursion going on, and ran out of stack space. Ti99 forever (talk) 12:08, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

My brother's most ambitious project was to write a program for the Channel 4 game Countdown - it took him several attempts to get it to run properly - making it so you just pressed V for vowel and C for consonant, without having to press ENTER, getting the numbers game to automatically generate two from the top and one from the others (that's the best way of getting to crack the numbers, we found), creating a clock that counted down 30 seconds (he couldn't reproduce the proper theme, the memory being limited and very few tones available) ...

 * The TMS9919 sound chip has three tone generators that range from 110 HZ up to 44,733 HZ. I'd say "that's a lot of tones". And there was a noise generator that had 6 fixed noises (3 "periodic" buzzer-type, 3 "white noise"), and one of each type that was programmed by the frequency given to the third tone generator. Ti99 forever (talk) 12:08, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

He even managed to create different coloured screens for each round - in LIST mode, it was black on a cyan background - if you didn't have a colour change in your program, the background defaulted to green in RUN mode.

For the reason detailed above, it was difficult to do any of the following with the Countdown program:

Whilst he managed to get vowels in the Vowels and consonants in the Consonants section (so that, when you asked for a vowel, you didn't get a Q), some letters were often repeated;

Same with the numbers - there were often two 25s or two 75s in the top row (he had managed to just draw on the numbers 1 to 10 for the bottom rows, so you wouldn't get a 15 come out);

It was not possible to teach it maths or English - so you couldn't get it to make its own words up or solve the numbers - you had to do that on pen and paper.

He came unstuck, however, when he tried to add the Conundrum round - it worked fine for all words beginning with A - he picked out some words like ABAMPERES and ABACTINAL (we didn't have a good dictionary at the time) - but then, the MEMORY FULL kicked in.

Somebody we knew with computer knowledge suggested we used the OPEN command and DATA statements - but that didn't work, either.

Google Images
The external link to search for images of TI99/4A is labelled as Google images. But the actual images come from somewhere else. Google merely indexes them. So the link title should not be Google images. Actually, link to search for a particular item should not be kept. The user can do the search himself if she wants to. --Soumyasch 10:40, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

I can add a picture of an original TI-99/4A retail box, if anyone sees any use in having that on the wiki. Alex W 21:08, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

-- Go for it! The TI-99/4A's retail box was another horrible marketing blunder! While Commodore was selling the VICtim-20 in boxes bragging "The Friendly Computer! With Color and Music!", TI simply had a picture of the home computer on the face. Nothing about sprite graphics, more colors and voices than the Vic, and absolutely nothing about the 16 bit processor. TI was selling the computer to consumers the way you'd sell a calculator to an engineer: a small technical specs box.

Car Wars
I have just started an article about Car Wars, one of the video games mentioned in this article. The article is by necessity a stub, since I have based the information in it entirely on my childhood memories of playing the game. I could use some help from anyone who has more information. marbeh raglaim 05:56, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

calculator rematch
The TI/Commodore price war was Tramiel's revenge for TI pricing him out of the calculator market in the 70s. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.125.110.223 (talk) 15:54, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

 * Could you point us to a chart that illustrates the differences in prices between Commodore and TI calculators? 216.99.198.43 (talk) 20:01, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Build quality
The article talks about the higher build quality of the TI - has this translated into a higher % of surviving examples?69.125.110.223 (talk) 18:16, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Tomy Tutor redirect
Someone made a link about a port made on the "Tomy Tutor". When I clicked it, it brought me to the TI-99. I don't feel this is right because a redirect is like "The name of the article is not identical but it's the same thing". So, ok, the TT had TI-99 parts, but it wasn't THE TI-99. It's like redirecting a bicycle to a motorcycle because both have 2 wheels - but they are two very distinct objects. The TT really should have its own article and the redirect removed. -- Lyverbe (talk) 12:12, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

I agree - the "Tomy Tutor" was completely different in look to the TI-99. See http://oldcomputers.net/tomytutor.html vs. http://oldcomputers.net/ti994a.html. wiley14 (talk) 00:33, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

The Current Picture
Is a 99/4, not a 99/4a. Fix this, internet. --98.148.119.83 (talk) 07:32, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

ASCII on the TI/99 4A
I skimmed through the main article for information on the ASCII set used by the TI/99 4A. If the information is there, I missed it. Where is it? Maybe the article could be rearranged a little so the information is located at a major subheading? Could somebody knowledgeable please rewrite the main article to explain how Texas Instruments viewed the ASCII question? Did the computer have its own unique set of ASCII (for the sake of proprietarial control), and where were the character definitions? Were they in the GLOM, as I suspect? Was each letter effectively a sprite? How did the fonts differ from ATASCII and PETASCII, two standards that were fiercely competitive at the time? If the TI/99 4A was a 16 bit microprocessor, were the fonts laid out a letter at a time, 16 bits across by 8 or 16 bits deep, or did they follow some other standard? Could letters back then be a different color than the cursor?

Were there memory ports for controlling the shape, color, and location of the cursor? 216.99.198.43 (talk) 19:52, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

 * Characters are 8x8. You define a character in TI BASIC with a CALL CHAR command. CALL CHAR takes two parameters: the ASCII value of the character, and a string of 16 hexadecimal digits whose binary representation determines the pixel values. So CALL CHAR(65,"183C7EFFFF7E3C18") turns the letter A into a diamond shape. The cursor is a part of the character set itself, but is not in a character set affected by the CALL COLOR command (character code is either 30 or 31, I can't remember). Ntsimp (talk) 18:11, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

 * Thanks, that was very helpful.  216.99.198.97 (talk) 07:05, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

 * The 99-4/A supported the 256 character set, but AFAIK only 32 through 127 were standard ASCII. All 256 characters could be redefined. Each 8x8 pixel character could have two colors, but the colors had to be assigned to blocks of (IIRC) 16 characters. A problem cropped up with TI Extended BASIC because it reserved two blocks of characters for sprite functions. A TI BASIC program that redefined any character in those two blocks would not run in Extended BASIC. There were some programming workarounds for that to make such BASIC programs work in EX-BASIC and some 3rd party Extended BASIC's incorporated workarounds so that any BASIC program using the sprite reserved blocks would run. Unlike the regular character blocks for color assignments, every individual sprite could have its own color. IIRC the background color for sprites was always transparent. The 9918A did not have a true bitmap mode where every pixel was individually addressable for color. The "bitmap" mode was actually 32x192 1x8 pixel stripes. Each stripe could have two colors. Sprites were not affected by that limitation and could move around the screen without affecting (or being affected by) that limitation. Sprites could be 8x8 pixels or 16x16 pixels and a pixel doubled "magnified" version of each was available. That enabled a 4 step sprite "zoom" using only two sprite definitions. Bizzybody (talk) 08:03, 9 December 2010 (UTC)

Caps key on the TI 99/8
What does the "caps" key on the TI 99/8 do? It is the key on the upper left part of the keyboard, sort of located where the ESC key was, on similar computers of the era.

Is it similar to a caps lock key? Does it stay down when you press it, like a typewriter shift lock, or does it come up again, functioning more or less as a toggle? 216.99.198.126 (talk) 06:55, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

ROM replacements
How much addressing space was available on the ROMs? Were the ROMs socketed? If somebody opened up his TI-994A, did he have an easy way of unplugging the ROM and replacing it with an EPROM of his own design? 216.99.219.27 (talk) 02:23, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

The system ROMs had 8k of space from >0000 to >1FFF. They were soldered in place. For the most part they only contains the GPL interpreter. Most of the operating system was stored in GROMs. There's 6k of system GROM and 12k of TI BASIC GROM in the console. These chips often are socketed but GROMs were proprietary devices made by TI so not easily replacable. External GRAM Emulator devices would just override them by driving the bus harder than they could. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.203.123.41 (talk) 00:39, 24 November 2010 (UTC)

Release data
This article is not consistent: The photo says it was released in 1979. Directly underneath (and in the article) it says 1981. This needs to be made consistent. --Rehcsif (talk) 18:15, 3 April 2010 (UTC)

 * The article says that the TI-99/4A was released in 1981. The photo is of the predecessor of the TI-99/4A, the TI-99/4 (which is mentioned in the first paragraph of the article), which was released in 1979. HMishkoff (talk) 01:56, 4 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Sorry, completely missed that. As common as the 99/4A is, you'd think someone could post a picture of the actual machine, not the 99/4 which was much more rare.  --Rehcsif (talk) 16:36, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Memory of the System
Someone keeps adding that that console has 16KB of CPU RAM /and/ 16KB of VDP RAM. This is not true for either the TI-99/4 or the TI-99/4A. They only have 16KB of VDP RAM and 256 bytes of CPU RAM. Please stop updating the article to say otherwise. You can clearly see this in any of the memory maps released from TI - check Editor/Assembler manual page 399 for one of many examples (explained on pages 398-399) - the only CPU RAM available besides scratchpad is the 32k memory expansion card. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.8.167.185 (talk) 23:17, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

Cleanup
This whole article needs a cleanup. Every section has had opinions inserted at random so many times that the whole thing reads somewhat random. The main sections should focus on the console as it was released and marketed, and all the custom user modifications, if they are worthy of mention at all, really should go in a separate section, to reduce confusion between what the machine originally was, and what people did with it. Perhaps we should check some of the other machine articles, are they as random? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.8.167.185 (talk) 23:31, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

An FPGA pin compatible 9918A replacement.
The F18A (for FPGA 9918A) project is nearing 100% original hardware compatibility. http://codehackcreate.com/archives/30 The prototype board is pin compatible with the 9918A (NTSC composite out), the 9928A (NTSC component out), 9929A (PAL component out) and TMS9919A (PAL component out, if such actually was made) Video Display Processor chips. How it does that is it does not use the pins that differ between the composite and component (color difference, works when connected to the common red, green and blue component video inputs) output versions of the chips. It has been tested in an MSX1, a TI-99/4A and a Colecovision without any changes to the F18A VHDL code. The F18A outputs video to a standard VGA 15pin connector, so there is no PAL or NTSC to bother with, its VGA. The creator of this plans to implement at least some features from the 9938 and 9958 VDP chips as well as some new features never available in that series of video chips. Aside from a perfect 9918A/9929A copy with VGA output + enhancements, another goal is to make the F18A much more affordable than any previous video upgrade for the TI-99/4A so that unlike previous video upgrades there will be many more TI owners able to use software that takes advantage of the enhanced features. The same should apply to use of the F18A in MSX1 computers. Bizzybody (talk) 08:22, 9 December 2010 (UTC)

Contemporary Use and Modern Hardware sections
Hi,

Today I have added some information about modern, contemporary use of the TI-99/4A, as it still enjoys a very active afterlife. I've also added a section briefly describing some of the modern hardware that is now available, or in development. It needs fleshing out more, and needs links/citations, but it's a start. Please have at it and go ahead and improve.

Regards

Mark Wills, 21 Jan 2011 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.97.147.31 (talk) 10:58, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

Reception...
Placed directly after Tech Specs seems to imply release reception, not some place-in-history review 25 years later. This IGN semi-factoid should be in legacy or something, not release reception, which discussed above anyway (as in sales, etc.)71.197.14.59 (talk) 11:06, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

99/4 release date
Someone changed the release date of the 99/4 from 1979 to 1977. I changed it back. I was working for TI in the Home Computer department until early 1979, and the product had not been released by the time I left, so I know that the 1977 date could not be possible. HMishkoff (talk) 00:46, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Compatibility
The article doesn't seem to make this clear: software-wise, how compatible were the 99/4 and the 99/4A? --179.182.131.165 (talk) 17:38, 2 March 2019 (UTC)
 * They run almost all the same software. The only practical difference is the TMS9918A in the 4A. A program using the 'graphics 2' mode of that chip would run only on the 4A, but that was very rare. The notable example is Parsec. Ntsimp (talk) 20:54, 2 March 2019 (UTC)

Expand article to TI-99 in general?
While this article is currently titled TI-99/4A, it also is Wikipedia's only content on the original TI-99/4. I'm considering being bold in restructuring the article to be about the TI-99 family in general, which would cover both the 99/4 and 99/4A, but would also expand the sections at the bottom with what is known about the 99/2, 99/3, 99/4B(5), 99/7, 99/8, and other variants that were in development, prototypes built that still exist today, and in some cases advertised to the public before TI pulled the plug on the whole home computer division. At that point the article ought to be moved to "Texas Instruments TI-99." Is anyone opposed? –Mabeenot (talk) 16:40, 12 September 2020 (UTC)

Requested move 4 November 2021

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: Moved. (non-admin closure) Natg 19 (talk) 23:05, 11 November 2021 (UTC)

– The "TI" in "TI-99/4A" is an abbreviation of "Texas Instruments", so the current title seems redundant, and I'm pretty sure that no other company has made a notable "TI-99/4A". The target name for the main article already redirects here and always has since it was created in 2004. Similar articles, such as and other articles in Category:Texas Instruments calculators, are already at the shortened names. — BarrelProof (talk) 01:31, 4 November 2021 (UTC) The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
 * Texas Instruments TI-99/4A → TI-99/4A
 * BBS software for the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A → BBS software for the TI-99/4A
 * Oppose, using the manufacturer name as well as the model seems to be the standard for home computers. VIC-20 redirects to Commodore VIC-20, PCjr redirects to IBM PCjr, etc... even though the shorter titles are unambiguous.  162 etc. (talk) 03:08, 4 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Those other article titles don't contain this company-name redundancy. What do you think of Texas Instruments 99/4A? — BarrelProof (talk) 04:16, 4 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Please note that there is also a consistency argument in the other direction, per all the other TI-XYZ articles (again, see Category:Texas Instruments calculators, none of which use titles like –  and also HP-XYZ articles per Category:HP calculators, none of which use titles like, which doesn't even exist as a redirect). — BarrelProof (talk) 14:13, 4 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Support – for some other computers, I'd also remove the manufacturer prefix, e.g. the VIC-20. For others, it's pretty much needed. Too much consistency is not a great thing. Dicklyon (talk) 04:25, 4 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Support: Right on cue, I knew someone was going to oppose this, citing consistency with inconsistency. Because WP:OTHERSTUFFEXISTS. Wikipedia is addicted to arbitrary corporate branding of every article title. They all need to be renamed. — Smuckola(talk) 05:27, 4 November 2021 (UTC)
 * I don't always mind including a company name in an article title about a product when it is unnecessary for disambiguation, but this one says TI twice in the name. That seems clearly 'beyond the pale'. — BarrelProof (talk) 14:13, 4 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Yeah it is beyond the pale, and so is arbitrary corporate branding of titles. There are actual encyclopedic standards for names, WP:NATURAL and WP:COMMON, which are both violated by constantly prepending a corporate brand. What a person minds doing has no bearing anyway. That's not even how to disambiguate, but rather to add a parenthetical word, so all such things must be renamed. FYI! Thanks. — Smuckola(talk) 22:04, 4 November 2021 (UTC)
 * OK, but that's partly a discussion for another day (e.g., per WP:RMCI#Moves of other pages). At least for the moment, we are just noisily agreeing with each other. — BarrelProof (talk) 22:59, 4 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Oppose - It's fine the way it is, the company name + model number. I've used to onw onw (my first computer) and I've never heard it called anything else. -  FlightTime  ( open channel ) 20:17, 4 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Your comment is illegible but "it's fine", and what you've heard, have no definition or bearing on Wikipedia. Even if you had somehow heard "Texas Instruments TI". — Smuckola(talk) 22:04, 4 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Boy, you're good Its just my opinion, thanks for sharing yours.  -  FlightTime  ( open channel ) 22:29, 4 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Support per nom.--Ortizesp (talk) 04:29, 5 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Support per nominator's reasoning. Tony (talk)  06:07, 6 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Support per nom and WP:CONCISE, and WP:PRECISE: we are only as precise as necessary. Over-disambiguation is almost never helpful. As for WP:CONSISTENT, the vast, vast majority of business/product names are not using redundant titles, so the actually consistent thing to do is make the few stragglers that are be consistent with the ocean of the rest of them, thus this move request to begin with.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  18:13, 6 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Support based on successful precedents: Amiga instead of Commodore Amiga, ZX81 instead of Sinclair ZX81, Master System and Game Gear instead of prefixing them with "Sega". Dgpop (talk) 14:59, 7 November 2021 (UTC)

EDIT NOTICE misleading
I am confused by the edit notice for this article.

TI certainly did not knowingly release the source code, or any schematics besides the authorized copies in "PES and Console Technical Data".

Also, saying that any graphics, sounds etc are fair use, "do whatever", is not the precise meaning of "fair use".

Texas Instruments has never relinquished copyright on home computer materials, ROMs, etc (except for 3 limited exceptions in 1984). For instance, Plogue recently BOUGHT the rights from TI for the Parsec and other voices.

I am all in favor of attributing Texas Instruments on any material quoted! Credit where credit belongs.

However, the majority of source code/schematics that are out there were NEVER PUBLISHED. Therefore material from those can be removed from Wikipedia at any time. Exceptions would be published books that re-wrote this material, like TI Intern.

It's a conundrum that much of the best material about the TI-99/4A and cousins came from unpublished TI internal documents. The answers to many questions are recorded as oral history of TI employees, or unpublished documents--and ultimately, unpublished documents in the TI Archives at DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University. (which anyone can access. They are absolute treasures.)  Neither of these counts as "published" per Wikipedia policy.

The papers from the CB Wilson estate are an example of "floating around the Internet" and are the authoritative, primary source on the origin of the TI-99/4A. However, until they are archived (they ought to be preserved at DeGolyer with the rest of CB Wilson's papers) they can't even be published.

Texas Instruments has a process through the DeGolyer library for journalists to request permission to publish material from the archive.

FarmerPotato (talk) 20:05, 26 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Fair comment. I've requested that the notice be removed as it's unsourced, Google doesn't confirm it, and "has been released" is a very vague term in any case.  Chaheel Riens (talk) 05:47, 27 October 2022 (UTC)
 * have set that edit notice to expire this date 28 October 2022. If editors would like to see it or an updated version restored to the edit pages, then please join this discussion with your opinions and comments. [Link]  P.I. Ellsworth  , ed.  put'r there 04:11, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

This edit notice has been deleted.  P.I. Ellsworth  , ed.  put'r there 05:44, 8 November 2022 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:TI-99/4A


text:
Trevor Wadley

Trevor Lloyd Wadley, (1920 – 21 May 1981) was a South African electrical engineer, best known for his development of the Wadley Loop circuit for greater stability in communications receivers and the Tellurometer, a land surveying device.

Life and career
Wadley was born in 1920 in Durban, South Africa. His father was the Mayor of Durban and Trevor was one of 12 children. He attended Durban High School where he excelled in mathematics and science but was uninterested in any sport. The exception was one year when he entered the annual cross-country athletics event and predicted that he would win in record time and his record would stand for 15 years. He went on to do exactly as he had predicted. His training method involved calculating the time he needed to run each section of the course and then training himself to run at the required pace for each section.

He then went to Howard College (now the University of KwaZulu-Natal), where he studied under Hugh Clark and Eric Phillips, after which he completed his Thesis (D.Sc.) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Science, 1959, Heterodyne techniques in specialised radio instrumentation. He had the habit of rarely, if ever, taking notes in lectures due to his near-eidetic memory. GR Bozzoli noted in is book Forging Ahead – South Africa’s Pioneering Engineers that Wadley "would very occasionally take out a small pocket notebook and write a word or two in it using a blunt, stubby pencil. His remarkable mind understood and remembered every item of a lecture".

In 1941, during World War II, he joined the Special Signals Services (SSS) of the South African Corps of Signals which was engaged in developing South Africa's own radar system based on the British experience which had been communicated to them. Wadley and other colleagues including Jules Fejer, the Hungarian-born mathematician, were trained on the British RADAR project. His association with Fejer would continue for many more years. Wadley was not keen on mathematics but Fejer proved each of Wadley's concepts mathematically.

In 1946, Wadley was employed as a designer of radio equipment and instrumentation in a special division of the Telecommunications Research Laboratory (TRL), created at the behest of Prime Minister Jan Smuts and located at the electrical engineering department of the University of the Witwatersrand (under Basil Schonland). The TRL relocated to the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and was renamed the National Institute for Telecommunications Research (NITR) (under Dr Frank Hewitt).

In 1948, Wadley started working on an urgent project for the South African Chamber of Mines to provide a means of radio communication underground for rescue purposes. After a feasibility investigation Wadley wrote a report indicating that it could be done and detailing his recommendations. The Chamber did not pursue the matter for more than a decade.

Wadley retired in 1964 (aged 44) and lived on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal until his death from cancer in 1981 (aged 61).

Wadley loop
It was in 1948 at the CSIR that Wadley invented the Wadley Loop receiver, which allowed precision tuning over wide bands, a task that had previously required switching out multiple crystals. The Wadley Loop was first used in the Racal RA-17 a 1950s top-of-the-range British military short wave receiver and later in the South African made, commercially available "Barlow-Wadley XCR-30" radio. The Wadley Loop is more widely used today in spectrum analysers, where the noise sidebands of the analyser's tunable oscillator are cancelled due to the spectrum analyser having a sideband noise much lower than the signals being measured. This device was even more useful to the SABC, SAPO, the South African Military and British Government agencies.

A Wadley receiver (circa 1952) is on display at the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers historical collection in Observatory, Johannesburg.

Tellurometer

In the early 1950s the CSIR was asked to develop a portable measuring device that could measure distances with an accuracy of 1 in 100 000. In 1954 this project was given to Wadley. Colonel Harry A. Baumann (Rhodes Scholar, engineer and Land Surveyor) of the South African Trigonometrical Survey had already come up with the invention and Wadley developed it further.

The Tellurmeter could measure up to a distance of 80 km by measuring the time delay in microwave transmissions. It was used in land surveying but has been mostly replaced with laser-based systems. The replacement to the microwave tellurometer was also developed by a South African, H.D. Hölscer. Miniaturised versions are still used in some surveying instruments and mine lift-shafts.

One of the first test of the tellurometer involved a measurement of the distance between Brixton Hill in Western Johannesburg and Fort Klapperkop in Pretoria, this being the most accurately known survey baseline in South Africa at the time. It successfully proved the accuracy of the tellurometer but, over time, Wadley noticed a bias to the measurements he was obtaining. He ascribed these to an inaccurate value of the speed of light that had been supplied to him. He approached the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington in England and they agreed to do a new measurement of the speed of light. The new measurement vindicated Wadley's claim. In 1958 the Tellurometer was used to measure Manhattan (13.08 miles). The measurement took 1 hour (plus two hours for the technicians to move from the south end of the island to the north.) Previously the measurement had taken 5 days.

When the system was demonstrated in England before a group including the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, it showed that a line on the Salisbury Plain which had been used as the baseline for British surveying had been incorrectly calculated by 1.5 meters. Subsequent sales of the device earned more than R300 million (in 1960's terms) in foreign revenue for South Africa. Tellurometers are still manufactured in Plumstead, South Africa.

Ionosonde
At the CSIR he developed a local version of the device called an ionosonde for measuring the Earth's ionosphere; the original device was developed by Breit and Tuve in 1925. It is a specialised form of a radar detector used to measure the height of the ionised layers of air between 50 and 600 kilometers. This information gives insight into what is occurring during an ionospheric storm. The ionosonde was used to provide a transmission frequency prediction service to the SABC, the South African Postal Service (SAPO) and South African Military.

Patents

 * Distance measuring system. US3241139A (1964)
 * Determining relative position by means of transit time of waves. US2907999A (1955) & US3229285A (1960)
 * Device including a rotating magnet positioned relative to another magnet for indicating the presence of magnetizable elements. US3541438A (1967)

Recognition

 * DSc in electrical engineering - thesis "Heterodyne Techniques in Specialised Instrumentation".
 * Honorary doctorate from the University of Cape Town.
 * In 1967 he presented the electrical principles of the Tellurometer at the Royal Geographical Society.
 * Gold medal from South African Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1960.
 * Frank P. Brown Medal from the Franklin Institute in America in 1970 for Development of Microwave Surveying Instrument.
 * The South African post office issued a 25-year commemorative stamp of Wadley and the Tellurometer in February 1979.
 * Durban High School instituted an annual mathematics prize in his honour in 2016.
 * Durban municipality named a street Trevor Wadley close in his honour.

General references

 * Burton, Mike. "The Annotated Old Four Legs" p. 103 (sidebar) Penguin-Random House South Africa
 * Talbot, Daniel B. "Frequency Acquisition Techniques for Phase Locked Loops" p. 166 John Wiley & Sons
 * Berg, Jerome S. (2008) "Listening on the Short Waves, 1945 to Today" p. 290 McFarland & Co, Inc
 * Smith, James R. "Introduction to Geodesy: The History and Concepts of Modern Geodesy" p. 67 John Wiley & Sons

title: Trevor Wadley


text:
Uplift Universe

The Uplift Universe is a fictional universe created by American science fiction writer David Brin. A central feature in this universe is the process of biological uplift.

His books which take place in this universe are:

 * Sundiver (1980)
 * Startide Rising (1983)
 * The Uplift War (1987)
 * The Uplift Storm trilogy (sometimes called the Uplift Trilogy):
 * Brightness Reef (1995)
 * Infinity's Shore (1996)
 * Heaven's Reach (1998)

There is also a short story, "Aficionado" (originally titled "Life in the Extreme"), published in 1998, which serves as a prequel to the series as a whole (it also serves as a part of Existence, an unrelated work by Brin), and a novella, Temptation, published in 1999 in Far Horizons, which follows on from Heaven's Reach. He also wrote Contacting Aliens: An Illustrated Guide to David Brin's Uplift Universe, a guidebook about the background of the series.

At least one more Uplift book is planned by Brin, as he has stated in 2012 that Temptation "will be a core element of the next Uplift novel... and answers several unresolved riddles left over from Heaven's Reach."

GURPS Uplift is a sourcebook for a science fiction themed role-playing game based on the Uplift Universe. It includes a few stories that happen in Jijo after the end of Heaven's Reach.

Setting
In the Uplift universe an intergalactic civilization called the Five Galaxies, comprising a multitude of sapient races, has existed for billions of years. This civilization is perpetuated by the act of "uplift",  in which a "patron" species genetically modifies a pre-sapient "client" species until it is sapient. The client species is typically indentured to its patron species for 100,000 years. A patron species gains considerable status, and patrons and clients often unite into powerful clans. Patron status can be lost due to extermination, or gross crimes against the galactic civilization. Brin helped popularise the term 'Uplift' within the context of science fiction which has since been used by academics writing in the field generally for the concept.

It is generally accepted in this universe that the process of uplift was initiated over two billion years ago by a species known only as the Progenitors. Humanity is therefore an anomaly – a species with no apparent patron race. Whether humanity truly evolved independently, or whether it was criminally abandoned by an unknown patron early in its uplift, is a topic of fierce debate. Most of humanity believes itself to be a "wolfling" species that emerged into sapience solely through natural evolution, without genetic manipulation by a patron species. This belief is considered heresy and ridiculous by most of the galactic civilization and has made most of the galactic powers enemies of EarthClan. The fact that humanity had already uplifted two species (chimpanzees and bottlenose dolphins) when it encountered the galactic civilization gave humanity patron status, which is one of the few lucky turns it has had in its difficult position as pariah in the galactic civilization. This saved humanity from the likely fate of becoming client to another race through forced adoption or being punitively exterminated for the environmental damage done to the Earth and its native species. Philosophically, it has been noted Brin sees lower life forms with potential for uplift like children, that will grow into adults.

Humanity and its clients are collectively known as EarthClan, with a government known as the Terragens Council. Hierarchy exists within the different sentient species on earth, though they are all cooperative Humanity in the Uplift universe is not a dominant nor a technologically advanced species – it is centuries, even millennia, behind the great galactic powers and has several enemies capable of exterminating it entirely. While there is cooperation between humans and different alien races, there is also cooperation between humans and their "client" (uplifted animal) races, to the point in that they cooperatively crew spaceships.

The civilization of the Five Galaxies has several "Institutes", which are bureaucracies that specify how species deal with each other and the uplift process. One of the most significant of these is the Library Institute, the repository of all knowledge. Humanity prides itself on using the Library as little as possible. For instance, instead of drawing upon the highly refined starship designs available in the Library, humanity tends to develop its own (generally vastly inferior) vessels. Humans feel that this is a way to exercise their own independence and creativity, and it occasionally allows them to find solutions to problems which have in fact surprised more powerful races.

The Institute of Migration determines what planets can be colonized and under what environmental restrictions, primarily to ensure that suitable races can still evolve for later uplift. The institute also ensures the separation of the hydrogen-breathing and oxygen-breathing orders of sapient life. Other intergalactic institutes regulate the uplift of sapient species, navigation, warfare, etc. Bureaucrats are recruited from all races but are expected to put the interests of their bureau before that of their race and maintain strict neutrality; however, this does not always happen.

The civilization of the Five Galaxies is made up solely of oxygen-breathing species. This civilization is aware of, but by tradition rarely if ever interacts with, the other orders of sapient life, which include those which are hydrogen-breathing, transcendent, mechanical, memetic, and quantum. There is also a special designation for hypothetical orders of life which could also exist but have not been discovered.

Technology
Unlike most other races, humans and their clients regard creativity as very desirable – the others take the view that everything useful has already been discovered, so it would be more efficient to search the Galactic Library for whatever they need. EarthClan are also considered odd for using archaic technology in addition to the more advanced Galactic technology, or sometimes preferring primitive technologies that they understand to more advanced ones that they don't yet understand. Most notably, EarthClan utilizes calculus, which is unknown and mistrusted by galactic society. All other races simply apply brute-force, finite-element analysis to any problem due to their ability to apply as much computing power as may be needed to model all phenomena.

Social behavior
Most Galactic "clans" are rather feudal and sometimes exploitative, and place strong emphasis on etiquette and especially on deferential behavior by members of "subordinate" races towards members of "superior" races. Hence they often regard EarthClan's informal speech as insulting and the humans' egalitarian treatment of their Neo-Chimp and Neo-Dolphin clients as foolish, if not outright offensive.

Languages
In the uplift world, the uplifted clients speak Anglic, a uniform language that replaced all previous human languages, and all EarthClan schools also teach GalSeven, a widely used galactic language. Dolphins are portrayed as adept with languages, and have two of their own: Trinary, a whistling language in which they speak in haiku, and Primal Dolphin, the "dream language", which is a song-like language they can use to communicate with each other and with whales. Uplifted animals can lose their power to speak when stressed, as a temporary de-evolution

Galactics have several specialized languages, including mathematical, tonal, sonar-based and "bridging" languages. Some languages are more sophisticated than others: in one novel, an alien called Alvin, who is a “Hoon” (alien species), notes that only some languages are good enough to describe highly technical processes, and notes how some people switch to "Galseven" or "Galtwo", which he doesn't understand. Chimps' vocal chords have been modified so that they can articulate human speech.

EarthClan
EarthClan is the name of humanity and their clients (an animal or plant species being uplifted) in David Brin's Uplift Universe. They are named for their combined homeworld Earth.

In the books, humanity is an insignificant race, having no known Patrons (a species responsible for uplifting them) and having mostly primitive technology. Humans have two (confirmed) clients and are referred to formally as "a-Human ul-Chimpanzee ul-Dolphin". By becoming patrons before contact with Galactic society, humanity unknowingly protected itself from being forced into becoming a client of an older race.

Humans
Humans in the Uplift universe have generally not undergone serious genetic manipulation, though there has been a concerted effort to mix all human ethnicities and breed superior humans. Advanced augmentative technologies exist, but are not widely used by humans. Humans themselves are "patrons" to other species that they uplift.

Neo-Chimpanzees
Chimpanzees were the first clients of humans and are the most "complete" in that they are closest to full sapiency. Initially, chimpanzees are removed from their families and raised in human environments, where they are uplifted, and given language abilities. They are Stage 2 clients but almost became Stage 3 when the Gubru invaded Garth. Neo-Chimpanzees like music, specifically percussion. They are embarrassed by situations which remind them of their earlier status as "smart animals", especially about nudity, tree-climbing and above all losing their ability to speak when under stress. Both dolphins and chimpanzees lose some of their sentient abilities in certain situations, a theme of devolution in Brin's work.

Neo-Dolphins
Dolphins were the second clients of humans, and are some of the best pilots in the Five Galaxies because their aquatic origins give them excellent instincts for 3-D maneuvers. They are also important in planetary warfare because most Galactics are unaware of the strategic potential of the sea. Neo-Dolphins are Stage-2 Clients, and recently got their own starship, Streaker (Streaker's discoveries later caused controversy among the oxygen-breathing sapient species). Neo-Dolphins are at a relatively early stage of uplift, and this has several consequences which are important in the plots of the stories: the optimal genetic mix for Neo-Dolphins has not yet been determined, and some of the newer genetic mixes become dangerous to colleagues when under stress; there are significant differences between older and younger Neo-Dolphins, in particular older individuals find it more difficult to speak; and they have to struggle against tendencies to slip into atavistic behaviours such as the "Whale Dream" and rescue fever (which leads them to beach themselves). Dolphins and humans interact with a version of English called Anglic.

Neo-Gorillas
Humans had agreed not to uplift Gorillas until their other clients were further along the path of Uplift. However, some humans secretly continued the project on the small colony-world of Garth. Neo-Gorillas have some understanding that they are being uplifted, and chose the Thennanin as their "patrons" at a ceremony on Garth. This is politically very important, as the conservative and conscientious Thennanin are a major military power and the Neo-Gorillas' choice converts the Thennanin from enemies to allies of EarthClan. After adoption by the Thennanin, the Neo-Gorillas are termed "Garthlings."

Kiqui
Kiqui are a pre-sapient amphibious species first discovered on the planet Kithrup by Streaker's crew, who persuade them to be uplifted as clients of the humans. If this goes ahead, the Kiqui would become humanity's first extraterrestrial clients.

Uplift
The concept of Uplift is a major theme of the novels and has been referred and discussed in numerous science articles, including both psychology and zoological journals. The novel content has been referred to as excellent cases of theoretical uplift scenarios by George Dvorsky, writing in the Journal of Evolution and technology. While the concept itself had been addressed by other writers before Brin, for instance, H.G. Wells in The Island of Doctor Moreau, It was Brin that coined the term, which has since been used by academics writing in the field generally for the concept

Uplift as a positive concept
Brin himself has noted that other authors, such as Wells, have covered the idea of uplifting animals, but in these examples the uplift was a Frankenstein-like negative concept, with the animals becoming monsters, portraying the dark side of uplift and the dangers of scientists playing god. In Brin's works, the same concept is used positively to bring humans closer to animals, which he sees as an endgame.

Other writers have commented on this aspect of Brin, differentiating him from other writers because of this, in comparison to how it is portrayed to most other fiction. Most other writers treat the uplifted animals badly in their various scenarios. The uplifted animals are used as tools or slaves, or in the case of the Planet of the Apes, as villains. Brin's take on the concept is more positive, with the "human patrons and their chimp and dolphin clients work together in a joyous partnership", and that it is almost the human's duty to uplift lesser creatures to an equal footing with their patrons.

Ecology
Ecology and stewardship of genetic diversity are major themes in the Uplift books. In this Universe, the protection of ecology is given a lot of importance by the various alien races, and those races found to be ecologically destructive are seen as criminals by the various other races in the books, and punished for their crimes.

Religion
Religious orthodoxy and the behavior of static societies are also themes. Most of the races that antagonize EarthClan and pursue Streaker are described as religious fanatics, and are angry at the possibility that lowly EarthClan may have discovered the fate of the Progenitors, possibly in direct contradiction to the core beliefs of several galactic religions. Earthclan mostly does not follow these religions, instead half-jokingly entrusting their fate to Ifni, a goddess of luck and chance, although there is also a subset of Earthclan known as the Daniks who are in a cult that believes galactic con-artists, the Rothen, are humanity's lost patrons.

Speciesism
One of the main themes of his work is the idea of speciesism. Brin's themes of animals uplifted to humans has been noted as rallying against speciesist viewpoints in modern society. His work implies that humans are not that different from animals. Brin himself has spoken about the glass ceiling that non human species are up against in terms of evolution, and how it is almost the luck of the draw that humans were the chosen phylum to achieve sentience. These themes are apparent in his work. However, it has been noted, despite the uplifting of some species, and Brin's work seeking an egalitarian proposed society for lower life forms and humans, that humans are still however positioned in the novels as the central heroes.

The connected theme to the fact that humans are the only intelligent species on the planet, is that, as such, we have a responsibility to other species, and it is an obligation that we must help other species, including uplifting them to sentience. Brin and his work proposes that it is almost selfish of humans not to consider uplifting other creatures to the human level of sentience.

Devolution
Devolution is also a theme in his work. This is one of the methods in the books for indicating the difference and superiority of humans over others. Both the Neo Chimpanzees and the Neo Dolphins at time revert to their basic animal nature, in particular when under stress, at one point the whole dolphin crew, except for a few, all devolve to basic animal behaviour. This brings great shame to them, in particular to the Neo Chimpanzees. Because the clients have gained their sentience via uplifting and the process is incomplete, it is imperfect, and they can at times revert to their devolved state. The theme of devolution is also investigated through the six races on Jijo, who profess to actually aspire to it, as part of a self discovery mystical experience. In contrast to the Aliens and the uplifted animals, the humans do not devolve nor wish to.

The importance of language
The importance of language is also a theme, with the gaining of language being a marker of sentience, and the loss of it in certain situations by the chimps as a shameful thing. All the uplifted creatures gain the gift of language, when they are uplifted by humans. Mental and physical abilities are both tested, tests by aliens on the uplifted animals test both, and while physical abilities between non uplifted chimps and uplifted ones will be the same, mental abilities obviously will be enhanced. In terms of language for instance, humans are proud of the chimp character Jeffrey (the main chimp character in Sundiver), who continues to use human speech, even when faced with the stress of death, which he succumbs to. The level of sophistication of languages is something that was noted in by Ina Roay-Faderman, who notes that only some sophisticated languages could be used to describe highly technical issues to deal with space travel.

Colonialism
Some commentary has highlighted the parallels between the uplifted races and their patrons, and colonialism. Brin himself is quite critical of the concept, and highlights where some patrons uplift lesser beings, and then exploit them instead of helping them. Humans however on the whole treat their uplifted clients better than many others are treated by their patrons, generally, within the galaxy.

Plot outline
The first book in the Uplift series, Sundiver (1980), is essentially a detective story and occurs only decades after humanity's first contact with the Five Galaxies. In this story mankind discovers the sun's inhabitants and a plot to overthrow a patron race. This is the only novel to directly involve Earth. The protagonist, Jacob Demwa, is referenced in later novels as a mentor in Gillian Baskin and Tom Orley, and the captain of the Sundiver appears briefly in The Uplift War, having been promoted to admiral. This suggests human lifespans have been significantly extended by galactic technology.

The second book, Startide Rising (1983), occurs centuries later. It follows the Earthclan amphibious spaceship Streaker (crewed by uplifted dolphins and their human patrons) which has discovered a colossal derelict fleet. Streaker is pursued as rumors spread throughout the Five Galaxies that the ship has found the remains of the Progenitors.

The third book, The Uplift War (1987), occurs around the same time as Startide Rising but in another part of the galaxy. An intergalactic war, sparked by the events of Startide Rising, results in a successful invasion of the EarthClan colony on the planet Garth, heavily populated by uplifted chimps.

In 1995 Brightness Reef was published, the first book in a new Uplift trilogy. The "Uplift Storm" trilogy (excluding the first book, which solely focuses on Jijo) follows the survivors of the spaceship Streaker as they continue to evade the various galactic powers. Along the way they encounter a hidden planet which has been inhabited by six races which have illegally settled and dropped out of the civilization of the Five Galaxies. They eventually make contact with the other orders of life. The second and third books in the new Uplift trilogy are Infinity's Shore and Heaven's Reach.

In Heaven's Reach, the series sums up with conclusions on the nature of life in the universe and revelations on the motivations of the oldest species in the Five Galaxies. Further explanations are provided on the Streaker's continuing mission, Earth's fate after invasion, and the nature of galactic life in the overlapping conspiracies of galactic civilization.

The short story "Aficionado" or "Life in the Extreme" is set earliest of all the currently written work and gives an account of the early days of the human uplift program before Contact. The contents of this story have since been reused as part of the unrelated novel Existence, making its position in the uplift universe uncertain.

The novella Temptation is set back on Jijo just after the ending of Infinity's Shore, and tells what happened to some of the characters from the trilogy after Streaker escaped from Jijo, as well as offering some hints as to the fate of the mysterious Buyur, the last race to legally settle there.

Timeline
Below is a summarized timeline for events detailed in the Uplift Universe, which corresponds to the Gregorian Calendar:

title: Uplift Universe


text:
Talk:Act of God

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Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 13:21, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

The Man Who Sued God
Does The Man Who Sued God need to be mentioned here? It's a bit of a stretch. Having it under the headling "The Movie" makes it sound like the movie is called "Act of God", which apparently it isn't. If every article had a section about movies the topic has appeared in we would have thousands of pages with unnecessary movie sections. And this movie is pretty obscure to boot. -R. fiend 15:04, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * No one seemed to object, so I deleted it. -R. fiend 05:38, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Pluviculturalist
Whilst I can make an educated guess at what 'pluviculturalist' means, it's a bit obscure – I wasn't able to find a definition in my own dictionary, dictionary.com or Wiktionary. Indeed, Google only came up with a total of 21 results for the word, Yahoo only doing slightly better with 24. I suppose it is the correct word for the job, but might it not be a little off-putting for some?

This San Diego anecdote doesn't provide much value either. Especially, "excluding him from liability but also from payment." The ruling may have excluded him from liability because the floods were an Act of God, but the issue of his payment is totally unrelated. The way it reads implies that somehow the Act of God classification meant he couldn't be paid. 24.110.86.83 06:05, 5 November 2005 (UTC)

Merge with Force majeure?
Aren't these two terms essentially describing the same topic? --DDG 20:14, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

No, as war is not an act of God, yet is usually included in a Force majeure clause. David 20:42, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Sorry, what I meant to say was: isn't this article about the force majeure clause? Is there actually a separate legal term for "Act of God" which is the same but specifically excludes wars?  --DDG 21:00, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
 * As the article say, Act of God is only for things outside of human control. Force majeure as our article describes (this was the version when you posted BTW ) includes many things which are not outside of human control e.g. crime, strikes, war and riots but are outside the control of the parties of a contract Nil Einne (talk) 15:05, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

The article cites Argentinian law and that's force majeure (Fuerza mayor) --80.37.198.204 (talk) 06:37, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Source citation for Act of God
We need a source to verify that the phrase "Act of God" is indeed a legal term. Sources are also needed to verify the example given at the end of the stub. -- backburner001 15:46, 25 April 2006 (UTC)
 * It's on most electronics warranties I come across. Not real sure how we cite those.--Attitude2000 03:58, 29 July 2006 (UTC)
 * I just saw it for the first time on the PS3 warranty —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.162.10.70 (talk) 02:05, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

Lightning is a terrible example
Lightning strikes people even inside houses; there's not really that much you can do to change your risk. I have personally witnessed lightning destroy a tree at the bottom of a tree-covered hill, and the lightning had traveled several miles to do it, passing over much taller trees and hills. So I'm changing the example to a real one.Shrikeangel (talk) 11:45, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

The Buffalo and the Act of God
Should we add the West Canadian story of the priest, the buffalo, and the Act of God? Killorf (talk) 18:26, 8 April 2016 (UTC)

Natural disaster outside human control
This needs to be elaborated. What kind of natural disasters can there be within human control? Natural itself implies that the cause is natural and not caused by humans. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A03:1B20:3:F011:0:0:0:A01D (talk) 13:35, 3 December 2017 (UTC)

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God is home
I need to find out how to sue God I know that he’s home I can actually Bring him to court 66.74.60.148 (talk) 05:24, 3 March 2022 (UTC)

History and Theology of "Act of God"
Was hoping to find a historical discussion of the term "act of God". There is obviously some significance to a flood being ascribed to [the usually Christian] "God" and not say, fairies, the planets, some as-yet unknown scientific process, etc. Was disappointed this is not present in the article. With some Google scholar digging it appears some articles may fit the bill. Ex. https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.86.1.101 https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/whp/eh/2011/00000017/00000001/art00008 https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/oxfjls13&div=21&id=&page= https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/harvard-theological-review/article/abs/on-the-meaning-of-act-of-god/035E1B248A520B3C6F8698A303942FD0 https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=act+of+god Anonymous-232 (talk) 17:22, 24 October 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Act of God


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User talk:Jaipandya

Hello, Jaipandya, and welcome to Wikipedia. A few tips for you:

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Atos

Atos is a French multinational information technology (IT) service and consulting company   with headquarters in Bezons, France, and offices worldwide. It specialises in hi-tech transactional services, unified communications, cloud, big data and cybersecurity services. Atos operates worldwide under the brands Atos, Atos|Syntel, Atos Consulting, Atos Healthcare, Atos Worldgrid, Groupe Bull, Canopy, Maven Wave, and Unify.

History
The company was formed in 1997 through a merger of two French IT companies; and combined with the Dutch-based company Origin B.V. in 2000 to become Atos Origin. It subsequently acquired KPMG Consulting in 2002 and SchlumbergerSema in 2004.

In 2010 Atos Origin announced the buyout of Siemens IT Solutions and Services and finalized the acquisition in July 2011. Afterwards, the company name reverted to Atos.

From 2022 to 2024 there were negotiations with Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky to sell Atos for about $2 billion, which ended in failure in February 2024.

Background: a series of mergers
In 1996, Origin B.V. was created after a merger of the Dutch company BSO and the Philips C&P (Communications & Processing) division, while a year later in 1997, Atos was created following a merger of the French companies Axime and Sligos. In 2001, Atos Origin sold its Nordic operations to WM-data. In 2002, it made a major acquisition by buying KPMG Consulting in the United Kingdom and in the Netherlands. Then in 2004, it acquired SchlumbergerSema, the IT service division of Schlumberger and took over the infrastructure division of ITELLIUM, a subsidiary of KarstadtQuelle.

At the same time (2004), the company created a new subsidiary, Atos Worldline, and the renaming of its consulting activities as Atos Consulting. Also in 2004, Atos Origin Australia, originating from Philips, was sold to Fujitsu. In 2005, Atos Origin sold its activities in the Nordic region, which had become part of the company with the acquisition of Sema Group, to WM-data while in 2006, Atos Origin sold its operations in the Middle East to local management.

In October 2007, Philippe Germond replaced longtime CEO Bernard Bourigeaud. Two shareholders, the hedge funds Centaurus Capital and Pardus Capital, tried to gain control over the company via the supervisory board. In November 2008, the boardroom battle came to an end when Thierry Breton replaced Philippe Germond as chairman and CEO.

Siemens IT
In December 2010 Atos Origin agreed to acquire the IT subsidiary of Siemens for €850 million. As part of the transaction, Siemens agreed to take a 15% stake in the enlarged Atos, to be held for a minimum of five years.

The company dropped the "Origin" suffix of its name in July 2011 after completing its acquisition of the Siemens unit.

In November 2011 Atos and software services provider Ufida International Holdings formed the joint venture Yunano. The two companies invested €5.7 million. Atos has 70 percent and UFIDA has 30 percent. The joint venture has its HQ in Bezons, France, a suburb of Paris. In 2012 Atos announced the creation of a new company called Canopy. The CEO is Philippe Llorens. In 2011 Atos introduced a Zero Email initiative, banning email as a form of internal communications, except for use with customers and prospects. As part of the initiative, Atos acquired the French software company blueKiwi in early 2012, rolling out their ZEN social networking software across its organisation.

Bull
In August 2014, Atos announced that it had acquired a controlling stake in Bull SA through a tender offer launched in May. Atos announced plans in October 2014 to buy out or squeeze out the remaining share and bondholders of Bull.

Xerox ITO and Syntel
On 19 December 2014 Atos announces the acquisition of Xerox's IT Outsourcing business for US$1.05 billion, tripling the size of the North American business. At the time of the acquisition, the unit generated US$376 million (Q3 2014) and had 9,800 employees operating in 45 countries.

In October 2018, the company accelerated its expansion in North America with the US$3.57 billion (including debt) acquisition of Syntel, a company with activities in banking, financial services, healthcare, retail and insurance.

Google Cloud
In April 2018, Atos announced a global partnership with Google Cloud to help offer secure artificial intelligence systems. As part of this partnership, the two companies would create common offerings and open "labs" dedicated to artificial intelligence in London, Dallas, Munich and Paris.

Worldline
In 2019, the company divested from Worldline, its payment subsidiary, as part of its strategy to become a "digital pure player". The company gradually sold its shares, retaining only a 3.82% stake in Worldline as at April 2020.

On 1 November 2019, Elie Girard replaced Thierry Breton as chief executive officer, following Breton's appointment as EU commissioner.

Maven Wave
In December 2019, Atos acquired Maven Wave, a US-based Google Cloud Premier Partner specialising in cloud and mobile applications, data analytics, experience design and cloud infrastructure.

Joliot-Curie
In June 2020, Atos, GENCI and CEA revealed the "Joliot-Curie" supercomputer which would help in academic and industrial open research.

Failed acquisition bid for DXC
In February 2021, Atos ended talks for a potential acquisition of DXC Technology. Atos has proposed for US$10 billion including debt for acquisition.

Eviden
In April 2023, Atos launched the Eviden brand ahead of a €5 billion carve-out. Following the launch of the brand, the main areas of focus for Atos were data centers and hosting, digital workplaces, unified communications and business process outsourcing. Eviden will focus on professional services and consulting, bringing together Atos' digital, big data and security divisions. However, this division has still not been approved by the board of directors in November 2023.

Financial difficulties
By early 2024, Atos was in financial difficulties. According to Le Monde, it had missed several sectoral shifts and "made a series of poor strategic decisions until it imploded", prompting the biggest French collapse of the last five years. Atos faced being "dismantled and wiped off the map", with its managed IT services division set to be acquired by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, and its cybersecurity and supercomputer expertise going to Airbus, leaving its digital consulting business to go to Onepoint. In April 2024, it reported total debts of almost €5 billion, and was exploring financial restructuring options to stabilise its finances; in May 2024, Atos was considering four competing bids to inject new money into the firm. The value of the company's shares had dropped 97%, and it had had four chief executives in two years. In June, discussions about a rescue deal with a consortium led by it biggest shareholder, Onepoint, broke down and Atos began negotiations with bondholders about a new new restructuring deal. On 4 July 2024, Atos announced a restructuring plan which involved conversion of about €2.8 billion of debt into equity, with creditors also contributing €233 million of new equity. It aimed to complete all restructuring operations by the end of 2024.

Services
Atos activities are organized in four divisions:
 * Infrastructure & Data Management: Datacenter management, service desk and unified communications;
 * Business Applications & Platform Solutions: consulting and systems integration;
 * Big Data & Cybersecurity: production of high-performance computers & servers and cybersecurity;
 * Previously: Worldline: e-commerce payment services and point of sale terminal applications

United Kingdom
According to a National Audit Office report on the government's four biggest suppliers, Atos earned £700 million in revenue from the public sector in the UK in 2012; of £7.2 billion sales worldwide. At that time, Atos held £3 billion worth of UK government contracts providing services to a wide range of organizations including NHS Scotland, Home Office, Welsh Government, the Ministry of Defence, Transport for Greater Manchester, the BBC, SLC and a multimillion outsourcing contract to NS&I. In the United Kingdom, from 1998 to 2015, Atos' healthcare division operated the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)'s Work Capability Assessment.

Atos Healthcare
During its time operating the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) the company's healthcare division, Atos Healthcare, faced extensive criticism over its practices. In August 2015, statistics from the DWP showed that 2,380 people had died between 2011 and 2014 soon after being found fit for work through disability benefit assessments. In 2014, "the DWP negotiated an early exit from the existing WCA contract with the private firm, Atos, after raising concerns about the quality of its work". Nevertheless, in 2016 Atos was still undertaking work for the DWP in assessing Personal Independence Payment (PIP) applications. The Press Association said in 2017 that Atos, used by the DWP to make its decisions, were due to be paid more than £700m for their five-year contracts against an original estimate of £512m.

When Atos took over administering PIP, estimates of how fast claims could be processed were over-optimistic as were estimates of how easily claimants could get to assessment centres. This led to delays in assessments, distress to claimants and unexpectedly high costs. Atos was accused of misleading the government.

Atos developed a computer system that would extract data from GP's computers nationwide. Costs rose from £14 million to £40 million and it was felt Atos had taken insufficient care how it spent taxpayers' money.

When Atos lost the contract for fitness to work tests, Richard Hawkes of Scope said, "I doubt there's a single disabled person who'll be sorry to hear that Atos will no longer be running the fit-for-work tests." Hawkes claimed the "fundamentally flawed" test should be "more than an exercise in getting people off benefits.  It should make sure disabled people get the specialist, tailored and flexible support they need to find and keep a job."

Mark Serwotka of Public and Commercial Services Union described the assessments as "designed to harass vulnerable people and take their benefits away rather than provide support and guidance. Doctors, MPs and disabled people all believe the tests should be scrapped so, instead of replacing the failed Atos with another profit-hungry provider, the government should bring the work in-house and invest in it properly."

Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron questioned how Atos and Capita could have been paid over £500m from tax payers money for assessing fitness to work as 61% who appealed won their appeals. Farron stated, "This adds to the suspicion that these companies are just driven by a profit motive, and the incentive is to get the assessments done, but not necessarily to get the assessments right. They are the ugly face of business."

In 2014, Atos Healthcare rebranded its occupational health business to become OH Assist. The Atos Healthcare brand was reserved for use for the PIP contract. Atos sold its OH Assist business to CBPE Capital in 2015.

For a number of years Atos denied claimants benefits or reduced their benefits if they did not take addictive opiate based pain killers. The Department for Work and Pensions subsequently revised its guidance stating, "healthcare practitioners [disability benefits assessors] should be mindful that the level of analgesia used does not necessarily correlate with the level of pain".

Corporation tax
It was disclosed in November 2013 through the National Audit Office that Atos had paid no corporation tax at all in the UK in 2012. The total value of contracts that had been awarded to Atos by June 2013 was approximately £1.6 billion.

Olympic/Paralympic Games
Atos has been the official IT partner for the Olympic Games since 2001 and is expected to continue until at least 2024. Atos, through the SchlumbergerSema's acquisition, was involved in previous Games during the 1990s, starting with the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992. Atos has been one of 11 major sponsors for the Olympic Games since 2001.

In 2011, some UK-based disability campaign groups called for a boycott of the 2012 Summer Paralympics due to Atos' sponsorship of the games and Atos Healthcare's UK contract to perform Work Capability Assessments on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). During the first week of the Paralympics in the summer of 2012, activists and disabled people targeted Atos in a series of nationwide protests. This culminated on Friday 31 August with a demonstration outside Atos headquarters in London, which ended in a confrontation with the police.

Through the International Olympic Committee's TOP (The Olympic Partner) programme, Atos has sponsored athletes from all over the globe in order to support their Olympic ambitions, including Danny Crates, the 2004 Paralympic Champion in the 800m.

2014 Commonwealth Games
Atos was named as an official supporter of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. On 26 June 2013, "Glasgow Against Atos" occupied one of the Commonwealth Games venues in protest against Atos sponsorship.

2015 Southeast Asian Games
Atos was the official sponsor of 2015 Southeast Asian Games in Singapore.

2018 European Championships
In February 2017 Atos was appointed as the first official sponsor of the Glasgow 2018 European Championships. The company has been awarded a £2.5 million contract for timing, scoring and results.

title: Atos