Pondering 2038

Planck time is around 10^-44 s and all protons are expected to decay in around 10^40 years, so with 31m ~= 10^8 seconds in a year, we need about 40+44+8 = 152 decimal digits = 306 bits.

Thus, a 512-bit integer time representation (maybe represented as 256.256 fixed point with 1 second unit) seems the most prudent choice (assuming that Planck time is a quantum of time and that proton decay will cause CPUs to stop working correctly anyway).

Alternatively, a signed 64.64-bit fixed point representation for seconds is still enough for currently measurable times, but may prove inadequate in the future.