Really huge numbers might be truncated at both ends.
eg:
<?php
$binary="11010101001111010001110101000100011110010110110".
"001111000010001010001111001100011010110110010010011010".
"001011010000001001011111110001010101101101011010101010".
"000100011101110010110010100111110001010010111010110011".
"001111111100011001011011001110001111110000101011010010";
print(strtoupper(base_convert($binary, 2, 16)));
?>
will output:
9E8EA23CB63C0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 (64 hex digits)
when the correct result would be:
6A9E8EA23CB63C228F31AD9268B4097F156D6AA11DCB29F14BACCFF196CE3F0AD2 (66 hex digits)
Notice that as well as the result showing '0's after B63C which you would expect it is also missing the first 6A before 9E.
