Year 2142 problem...

[Ken Raeburn]

On Jan 5, 2006, at 02:29, Amir Saad wrote:
> please give me more details about year 2038 problem,

Most 32-bit systems, and some 64-bit systems, use a signed 32-bit  
value to express the current time as a number of seconds from  
midnight GMT on January 1, 1970.  This allows values from December  
1901 through January 2038 to be expressed.  In this representation,  
if something isn't done, after Jan 19 2038 03:14:07 (2**31 - 1), the  
value wraps, and we'll get Dec 13 20:45:52 1901 (-2**31).  Some  
systems have started moving to a 64-bit representation, although this  
transition may break binary interfaces.

Other systems, using a different reference point, a different sized  
counter, or a different counting interval, will have different  
limits, but this representation is very popular.  (And, getting back  
to the current thread, it's not capable of representing the year  
2142, so the systems in question presumably do not use this  
representation, at least internally.)

Google has plenty of pointers to descriptions of the problem, including:

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question75.htm
http://www.2038bug.com/
http://www.2038bug.com/faq.html

Ken