I posted this on AOL today, and thought it would be of interest to you.
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<Information and this time of database is very valuable because of the kind of information that would be contained in it, but who is it most likely to benefit after Year 2000 and why.>
A lot of people get tired of my research and/or technical explanations. But, I'll try to explain in laymens terms.
The situation is overwhelming. Companies have to look at what is critical for their companies to function, even minimally.
Everyone is already in triage. Meaning, they realize they can't fix everything now. They have to fix the most critical elements first. There will still be disruption. But, by addressing the critical aspects first, they're hoping this won't be a total shutdown ... but rather, a slowdown.
PLUS not all embedded chips are affected solely by 1/1/2000. Some are. Some aren't. Some also have problems with several other dates and years between 1/1/2000 and 1/1/2001. And then there's the BIOS problem on some chips (I won't bother explaining what those are). Certain of these will also fail well AFTER 2000. One date that easily comes to mind is 2029 (but there are other dates sooner).
PLUS ... there are things called "Real Time Clocks" (RTC). You could buy Y2K compliant RTC's since 1992. But, they cost $.60 more than the ones that were Y2K compliant. Volume buyers didn't want to spend that extra 60 cents. Last month the Nuclear Regulatory Commission discovered 600 NEW pentiums had those old chips that wouldn't work right after 2000. Seems like LOTS of PC's have this same problem - including some that people purchased this year. RTC's are in MANY embedded systems. Mostly industrial applications.
In August of this year something new was discovered: "Time Dilation".
I'm using a PC example, but the same concept applies in embedded systems.
Here's how it works: You change the date to 1/1/2000 on your PC. Shut it off. Turn in on, everything looks OK. Two weeks later, check back in ... and the date isn't mid-January (like it should be) ... it's December 2000. Seems seconds are speeded up ... a LOT. They're STARTING to investigate this, to try to understand WHY.
Getting back to your question: who is most likely to benefit after Year 2000 & why.
EVERYONE WHO USES IT. The database goes into finite detail ... there will still be MUCH more to fix down the road. PLUS, even without Y2K ... you need this information for any modifications to the system. It's just that no one did it in any comprehensive way before.
With software programming, you generally have software documentation. So, if things change you know where to go, and how the pieces inter-relate. What's in these embedded systems is something called "firmware". It's called that because instructions are BURNED onto the chip. It was never meant to be changed. Unfortunately, now it has to be checked and/or changed. People now need to create "records" that never existed before. And they'll still need this information down the road.
Cheryl
Techies: If I didn't explain this properly, please email me. Most people on this thread aren't interested in technical details. If I explained something incorrectly, we can re-post a corrected version later.
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