Outlaw has said that it will be a minimum of 60 days following the release of the Sherwood 972 before they release the 997. While a handful of 972s have been sold, there are still bugs in it, mostly with the Trinnov set up, and Sherwood is still working on the fix. So it would appear that the most optimistic release date of the 997 would be February 2010, and more realisticaly later.
Sorry about your 950, I still have mine, and am crossing my fingers that it stays alive 'til the 997 is out.