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The
Problem
The
Millenium Bug exists in a chip called the Real Time
Clock.
The battery powered Real Time Clock maintains a record
of the date and time when the PC is switched off.
The Real Time clock has a number of locations (registers)
to store information. But each register can only store
a number as high as 256. So a year like 1998 will
not fit into one register (byte).
| So
1998 is split into 2. |
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| The
'Year' register increments each year. From 98
it changes to 99 and from 99 it changes to 00.
(It overflows from 99 to 00 because
it is stored in B.C.D. Binary Coded Decimal)
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| The
century register, however remains stuck at 19 |
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So
in about 98% of all PC's in the world, including brand-new
Pentiums which claim to be millennium compliant, the
date 31/12/99 will roll-over to 1/1/1900. In Short
this is where the Millennium Bug resides at hardware
level.
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