Mercifully, the GPS ‘millennium bug’ was a massive letdown
Apr08
A little-known bug on GPS receivers saw many devices set the clock back to 1999 this weekend. This event, which takes place every 19.7 years, has the potential to disrupt any system that relies upon GPS satellites for precise timing information. TNW explained the bug in more detail a few weeks ago, but here’s a recap: GPS satellites transmit data and time information to terrestrial-based devices. Because the data packets are so small, the satellites are unable to encode this information in a standard DD/MM/YY format. Instead, they transmit a 10-bit number which counts upwards from an epoch. This represents…
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