To all--In light of the recent questions which have been posed in regard to the compliance/non-compliance of embedded chips, I have posted below 4 snippets of information on the subject and the urls I took them from (all from the excellent research thread). The last is from Jenkins in the Nov. conference call.
What is perhaps most remarkable here is that there are such widely varying estimates as to the number/percentage of non-compliant embedded chips. This ranges from a low of 2/1000 (50MM out of 25BB--Gartner group who nonetheless says the cost of locating these 2 in 1000 is "mindboggling") to the 20% figure given by Real Time Engineering for the UK oil processing industry to the 30-40% figure given by Jenkins in the recent conference call.
One would think that those who had done real time testing would have the best estimates, assuming their testing was accurate. In any case, these figures, although they vary WIDELY, all confirm that there is a very serious and real problem. They also confirm that no one has a handle on the scope of the problems which bodes very well for the testing business.
computerweekly.co.uk
Anthony Parish, director-general of the federation, said: "For every 1,000 embedded chips you look at, you'll find two or three that need correction. But those two or three are the ones that can close a blast furnace at the cost of œ1m a day or stop power distribution. "The problem is finding those two or three that are not compliant."
The risks in testing embedded chips and their associated systems are highlighted in the report, which stresses that you can make things much worse if you don't get the testing right.
Steve Goodwin of the institute warned that hospitals had huge numbers of embedded chips and few resources to test them. Taskforce 2000 director Robin Guenier said roughly 30% of his estimated total œ31bn year 2000 compliance cost would be for embedded chips, with another 30% for desktop and distributed systems and another 30% for mainframes.
computerweekly.co.uk
One in five embedded systems responsible for running critical processes in UK oil, petrochemical, power and aviation manufacturing firms will fail in the year 2000.
Applications at risk include key safety systems such as those to detect fires. This alarming finding is contained in a report by Glasgow-based Real Time Engineering which was commissioned last month by the Health and Safety Executive. Nearly a fifth of the 150 embedded systems Real Time Engineering identified as being business-critical failed year 2000 tests.
Most industries use real-time IT systems to control mechanical equipment. Those in the oil, gas and power industry have so far received the most attention. But other industries, including retail distribution, food and drink manufacture, water and sewage all stand to be affected.
ourworld.compuserve.com
At cause are non-Y2k compliant [3] embedded electronic controls. The Gartner Group predicts that more than 50 million embedded system devices will exhibit year 2000 date anomalies.[4] The problem is determining which 50 million devices out of an estimated 25 billion devices that will be in existence by the year 2000 and which of these devices are critical.[5] The 10/2/97 issue of Computerweekly News reported on the magnitude of the problem.[6] The cost of locating bad chips is mind-boggling.
exchange2000.com
To the underlying question about whether this is real or not, (chuckle) everything that we're doing , our data base at this point has like 4500 items in it which a total of between 30% and 40% are either clearly non-compliant or suspect. And there's enough wisdom out there at this point - there are some people that are still in denial, and bluntly said, we're not spending a lot of time with those people. |
