Dear Customer:

ARI Service recognizes that the turn of the century poses a significant challenge for the information technology industry. Bravo systems introduced after April 1996, Manhattan S6200 and Manhattan CommercePRO servers introduced after July 1996, and notebook PCs introduced after May 1, 1996 are Year 2000 compliant.

In order to test the functionality of AST systems, any compliance-testing software should check the following:

• Operating system date rollover from 23:59, December 31, 1999 to 00:01, January 1, 2000.

• Hardware clock date (obtained via the BIOS) rollover from 23:59, December 31, 1999 to 00:01, January 1, 2000.

• The computer's ability to recognize Year 2000 as a leap year.

Several software packages exist to test personal computer hardware for year 2000 compliance. Unfortunately, these packages often measure different aspects of the computer's functionality, all of which may or may not have a bearing on the computer's behavior during the rollover period. Therefore, a computer classed as "Year 2000 Compliant" by one test may fail another software test. This situation has not helped the general confusion surrounding the Year 2000 issue.

Also, due to possible Y2K issues with your AST / ARI-Service supplied Operating Systems, ARI Service recommends that you check with your Operating System manufacturer for the latest updates and bulletins regarding your software. AST / ARI Service has supplied Operating Systems manufactured by Microsoft and Novell. Their Y2K web sites are listed below:

If you have upgraded to a different Operating System or a different version of the AST / ARI-Service supplied Operating System since the purchase of your AST, please contact the software manufacture for Y2K support.

From this section you can check the year 2000-compliance status of your computer(s) hardware and identify any actions you may need to take to make your system(s) year 2000 compliant.

Year 2000 Coordinator