on around 3 dozen of it's semi-conductors.

"We have discovered a potential Year 2000 issue with the manner in which "years" are tracked in these products"..."The actual result will depend on the programming you have performed and on your applications"

http://www.mot-sps.com/y2k/black_prod.html

-- Goldi (goldilucks@yahoo.com), September 09, 1998

Answers

I would not about 36 processors. They probably made severa hundred million of the things over the past 30 thirty years, and if 36 out of all of them fail, it's not really anything to get upset about....8<).

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (cook.r@csaatl.com), September 10, 1998.

Its not literally 36, its 36 multiplied by however many of the things that they sold! And remember, its quality not quantity -- WHERE are they, WHAT are they used for, WHAT do they interface with that might cause a daisychain type failure, etc., etc.

-- Joe (shar@pei.com), September 10, 1998.

Motorola's Y2K alert is on 33 MODELS of chips. This could translate into billions of devices currently in service. In the way of help, Motorola offers its customers little more than good luck. The statement advises: "You must determine if these issues will cause a problem." Well, duh! Thanks for nothin'.

-- bill dunn (bdunn@snet.net), September 10, 1998.

My question is how many different models of real time clock chips have they produced over the years vs the list of bad RTC's ie what percentage of thier RTC are bad. Also when did they start producing compliant RTC's. This would give us a good guess on the number of non-compliant Motorola RTC' out there.

-- Mike (knierman@lilly.com), September 10, 1998.

Notice that the "alert" page was last updated in January 1998. Not exactly news that is hot off the presses.

The issue with noncompliant real-time clocks based on the original Motorola specification is covered well in Dick Lefkon's IEEE paper found at this URL:

http://www.itpolicy.gsa.gov/mks/yr2000/lefkon/paper39fp.htm

Here is more info about Professor Lefkon:

http://www.aitp.org/news/nr.dlefkon.html

-- ParkTwain (ptwain@ibm.net), September 10, 1998.

Yeah, they probably built 36 more between now and then. I wonder who bought the first 36. 8<)

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (cook.r@csaatl.com), September 10, 1998.