Not only is the timing of the flaw's onset unpredictable, they say, but so are the results, which include malfunctions that can wipe out data, prevent computers from starting up, and lead software programs to make faulty calculations.
The problem is said to affect primarly older computers, but some more recent IBM clones are also said to be susceptible. One report of the flaw involved an Apple Computer Macintosh, and the flaw may lie hidden in a wide range of electronic machinery...
It all began with Crouch's decision more than a year ago to set his office computer forward to Dec. 31, 1999, to test how it would handle the transition to the year 2000. The rollover happened without a hitch, even though the machine ran on a clone of Intel's aged 286 microprocessor chip -- a relic from the mid-1980s.
Since Crouch was using the computer for word processing in which the date is logged made no difference, he decided not to change the date back.
But to his consternation, during the next two weeks the computer's clock jumped ahead to December 2000. Other odd malfunctions cropped up...
While some testers reported computers jumping ahead for minutes or months, others said they experienced leaps backward, while on some machines the clock appeared to simply slow down. Some afflicted computers were unable to locate the pathway to outside phone lines or even their own hard disk, making it impossible to fire up programs.
"The jury is still out on exactly what is happening," said Douglas de Lacey, who oversees computer systems at Cambridge University's School of Arts and Humanities in Britain and has reported encountering the Crouch-Echlin Effect on two aging Toshiba laptops.
Pressure for a verdict is building, though, especially since a recent, widely distributed e-mail announcement from COMPAQ'S YEAR 2000 OFFICE in Albany that said the company would be RESELLING THE SOFTWARE FIX fix created by Crouch and Echlin.
Becker said that he was being peppered by anxious calls from major clients like General Motors and Exxon asking what they should do.
If the Crouch-Echlin Effect is real, computer users may have to spend billions of dollars testing and possibly replacing equipment that seemed ready for the next century...
So far, the Crouch-Echlin Effect has only been observed in computers with "nonbuffered" real time clocks, a design not used in today's name-brand computers but common in older devices...
In the case of a nonbuffered real time clock, the BIOS chip will see the electronic equivalent of a red flag for 244 microseconds before the update is to occur. Seeing this flag, the BIOS waits briefly. If the flag is not there, the BIOS figures it has enough time to complete its reading and proceeds to do so.
All this works fine until the computer reaches the year 2000, according to Echlin. After that, he says, computers with nonbuffered real time clocks may trip up if an unlucky user turns them on at the wrong instant in the update cycle ...
"They make a very solid argument," said Jeff Floyd, a real time clock specialist for Motorola Inc., the giant semiconductor company that manufactured the real time clock chip on Crouch's computer.
nytimes.com
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Kinda scary. Small & mid-size businesses, schools, charities AND plant floors are loaded with 386's and 486's.
Cheryl |
