Science & Technology

New 'Millennium bug' to hit computers in 2038

By T.K. Randall
December 17, 2014

Image: Backlit Keyboard
Credit: Colin via Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 (adapted) Back at the end of the 20th century, panic about the Year 2000 bug saw thousands of businesses scrambling to upgrade their computers in fear that the allegedly crippling flaw would cause widespread problems at the beginning of the new millennium.

As it turned out the bug, which had been fixed by most businesses before the turn of the calendar, ended up having very little impact at all and the preceding doomsday predictions of a global economic collapse never came to pass.

Fast forward to the present day however and now there is a new version of the bug on the horizon. Known as the Year 2038 Problem, the bug will prevent 32-bit computer systems from being able to correctly tell the date and time after the 19th of January 2038.YouTube recently experienced a similar issue when its hit counter for Psy's "Gangnam Style" video, which uses a 32-bit system, reached its upper limit when it hit 2,147,483,647 views.

Whether the bug will actually be a problem when 2038 comes around however remains to be seen as even today 32-bit computers are fast being replaced by newer 64-bit counterparts.

In all likelihood the bug will have even less of an impact than the original Millennium bug did.

Source: New Zealand Herald

Tags: Year 2038 Problem, Computers