6
YEAR 2000 issue
The IBM compatible PC utilizes a Motorola MC146818 compatible Real-Time Clock (RTC) chip to
maintain the date and time. Unfortunately, the “century” is not manipulated by the RTC. It uses 8-
bits of information to report the year and can only hold the last two digits of a year in packed BCD
format. For example, 1997 is reported solely as 97. Since the RTC also contains non-volatile
memory, IBM specified a location in the memory to hold “century” information. By combining the
century data with the year data, software can obtain a full 4-digit year. When the Year 2000 occurs,
the RTC reports the year as ’00’ and the “century” in RTC memory will contain ’19.’ Combining the
full 4-digit year yields 1900, not 2000. Any applications which compare dates, or uses relative dates
to perform functions will see incorrect dates.
All motherboards contain BIOS, which is one of the key ingredients to check for systems designed to
handle the year 2000.
All motherboards currently shipped from Iwill contain BIOS capable of
handling the year 2000 date correctly
. The BIOS contains a feature that checks the least two
significant digits of the year stored in the RTC during each BIOS request (INT 1Ah) to read the date
and, if less than `80', updates the century byte to `20'. This feature enables operating systems and
applications using the BIOS date/time services to reliably manipulate the year as a four-digit value.
Be aware that the BIOS capability alone does not ensure that the system will handle the transition
correctly. Other system components such as the operating system and application software also need
to be able to handle the year 2000 date, and recognize the date format from other sources.
Peripherals and Devices
If you want to improve your system’s I/O performance, choose the latest Iwill SCSI controllers. The
following are some Iwill SCSI controllers you may purchase and use with your BD100 Plus
motherboard:
l
SIDE 2930C: a fast SCSI for MO, CD-R, CD-R/W, CD-ROM. This
value/performance SCSI card connects up to 7 devices.
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SIDE 2930U+: a 20MB/Sec. transfer rate. A full function card, supports booting from
hard disk or CD-ROM, connects 7 devices
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SIDE 2935UW: 40 MB/sec transfer rate, 15 devices. The most stable product for an
efficient system
l
SIDE 2935LVD: an 80MB/sec transfer rate, and a 12-meter cable length connecting 15
devices. Perfect solution for enthusiasts.
Summary of Contents for BD100 Plus
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