As discussed previously, computer companies believe that the main problem lies in the Real Time Clock (RTC) and the Basic input/output System. The RTC maintains the date and the time whether the system is off or on, and the BIOS is where the operating systems and software applications obtain primarily information. Most computer hardware products purchased before the end of 1996 can be made year 2000 compliant through BIOS upgrades or software patches. Therefore, one solution is implemented primarily in the BIOS, by modifying the Power-on Self Test designed to make sure the correct date is passed to operating system when retrieving the date information from the BIOS. Another solution is implementing a Patch program that corrects the RTC date through BIOS calls. Achieving the Year 2000 compliance is dependent on many factors, some of which are not completely within the computer companys control. Various computer firms have broken their process into various steps, which are the following; Awareness, Assessment, Renovation, Validation, and Implementation for IT Applications End User Supported Applications, Infrastructure, Business Partners and Embedded Devices. Up to this point all of these steps have been successfully completed and it has been through testing from December 1998 thru 1999....
