http://mot-sps.com/y2k/realtimeclocks.html

This site is for Motorola's RTC's that are NOT y2k ready. Click through the products(PDF format)

There are 94 products listed here in total. Multiply that by, oh, let's say 10,000 each(gotta love mass production). That's somewhere around 940,000 IC's that WILL NOT WORK properly in 2000 unless they are found and replaced or worked around.

I don't want to single out Motorola. Over the years there have been ten's or even hundreds of RTC type IC manufacturers.

Do the math. Where are all theese IC's.

I'll take some TOAST with my breakfast, thank you.

-- CygnusXI (cygnus@black-hole.com), December 17, 1999

Answers

Embroidered chips?

-- Emily (Litella@S.NL), December 17, 1999.

However, if you browse deeper into the Motorola site, and read what will happen to these RTCs that are non compliant, you will find the following:

The register that records years contains a two-digit field. Thus, as we transition from 1999 to 2000 the register may roll from 99 to 00. The impact of this will depend on the programming you have performed and on your applications. In addition, due to the change in the implementation of Daylight Savings Time by the U.S. Congress, these clocks may no longer provide desired time changes at the newly prescribed dates to begin and end Daylight Saving Time. You should also review these clocks in terms of the recognition of leap years.

In other words, the RTC does not fail, but if you are using an application that requires the correct day of week as calculated by one of these chips, you may find things happening on the wrong day. But if the day of the week is calculated in a higher level system then there would be no problems. Also any of these chips used in industrial processes that care about time of day, or date, but not about the day of the week will still work OK.

Malcolm

-- Malcolm Taylor (taylorm@es.co.nz), December 17, 1999.