Y2K fix for CMOS clocks

IPOH: XIOS-RDG Computing Solutions Company said it will launch in Malaysia a product that would test Year 2000 (Y2K) compliance in complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) clocks.

Fix2000Pro was jointly developed by Dorset, England-based Eurosoft and Utah-based Intelliquis, and would be available here in about two months.

Studies conducted by Eurosoft and Intelliquis claim that about 95% of all PCs are not Y2K compliant, according to Khen Lim, general manager at XIOS-RDG, the local authorised reseller for Intelliquis.

"They found that most PC makers have not considered upgrading their CMOS real-time clocks," he claimed. "The National Software Testing Laboratories (NSTL) Y2K test used by most PC makers to test compliance is incomplete."

"Many vendors focus their efforts on making their PC's BIOS (basic input/output system) and operating system Y2K-compliant, but neglect the CMOS," he said.

PC makers forget that applications software can access the CMOS real-time clock directly. If a PC's real-time clock does not recognise dates beyond Jan 1, 2000, it will read all new dates as "1900," affecting results in databases and spreadsheets.

"Fix2000Pro includes a hardware fix, which is an 8-bit ISA card that can be plugged into the motherboard to correct the CMOS problem," Lim said. The card, made by Eurosoft, is compatible with Windows, Unix and DOS machines.

The software portion of the product is menu-based, with an intuitive interface that will allow the user to search the system for all potential Y2K conflicts.

"It will also recommend changes and automatically fix your non-compliant software to pertinent process dates," Lim claimed, adding that the changes are logged and can be reviewed.

The PC-based application runs on 386-based PCs or higher with minimum 4MB RAM. It is available in DOS, Windows 3.11 and Windows 95 versions.

Lim said that the program can also search the Internet for patches to fix conflicts that it is unable to resolve.

"There is an `undo fix' feature that ensures you have complete control over the repair of your software," he said, adding that users can merely scan the hard disk without modifying any files.

The list price for Fix2000Pro is RM389, and the corporate price is RM320. For more information, please contact Lim at (605) 242-8192 or e-mail xiosrdg@tm.net.my.