Some Real Embedded Systems Problems from People who know:
I will assert that without a doubt, anyone who tells you that their embedded systems are Y2K compliant because: 1) our process is not date sensitive; 2) our embedded systems are not date sensitive; or 3) we will have no problems upgrading our embedded systems, is either a liar or an idiot. If they say that their embedded systms are Y2K compliant because they have tested each and every one and will provide the documentation to prove it, then I will begin to believe them.
The problem begins with the fact that most contoller boards are off-the-shelf products and as such, they come with a lot of features that may or may not be needed for a given application. For example, a conveyor needs a controller boards to measure speed and load and to control speed. That translates to two input channels and one output channel. A HVAC systems needs a controller to measure temperture and time and to control temperature. Again, that translates into two input channels and one output channel. A controller board manufacturer will make a generic controller board that will work for either application and then it's up to the process programmer to write the software specific to each process. However, both boards will come with a real-time clock (RTC), even though only one process will use it. If it's not being used, it just sits there and ticks away, minding its own business. Until, of course, 1/1/00.
What happens then? Who knows. Maybe nothing. Or maybe we will get a time-dilation error, as has been described in the c.s.y2k newsgroup, in which the RTC causes errors in the BIOS. Maybe it will crash the controller software. Until we test the embedded systems, no one can say. I do know that some testing has gone on, and the results have been mixed. Some problems here, no problems there. But for the most part, the current state is ignorance. A power company PHM gets on the tube and says, "We have no problem because our processes don't care what year it is." And the controller in the conveyor system, buried
deep under ground, that feeds coal to his generation plant doesn't care what year it is, it just cares about the speed of the conveyor and the load on the conveyor. But the controller board may have a real-time clock that DOES care what year it is. And nobody is checking to see what will happen when the big day arrives.
At the Keystone Power Plant, located in Shelocta, PA, they have miles of underground conveyors that travel through old deep coal mine shafts to deliver tons of coal to the generators that supply NYC, New Jersey, and parts of Delaware with their power. Down the road, the Homer City Power Plant, located near Homer City, PA, also relies on miles of deep conveyors to send power to the same customers. These conveyors are NOT manually operated: there is no troll that stands there, watches
the coal whiz past, and adjusts the speed according to the wishes of the plant operators. The conveyors are controlled by embedded systems that receive instructions from the control room operators, measure the actual rate of flow versus the desired rate of flow, and adjust their operations accordingly. Near Sagamore, PA, is the Keystone Dam, a 4 mile by 1/4 mile man-made lake that supplies the KPP with cooling water. The flow of water to the plant, though several miles of underground pipes and valves, is controlled by embedded systems, as is the operation of the dam's floodgates and sluices. There are hundreds of controller boards involved. No one has gone down and checked these boards for compliance.
At the International Paper mill in Natchez, MS, they use controller boards to measure the rate of flow of the extremely toxic chemicals used to make paper. What's more, their controller cards are NUCLEAR. That's right, they use nukes to peer into the pipes and see what's going on. The use of these nuclear controllers is licensed and authorized by the NRC -- the same NRC that is going to have to shut down nuclear power plants sometime soon. Well, guess what? I was talking to a safety engineer at the Natchez mill. I asked him, "What are you doing about Y2K?" He said, "Y2K? That's a bunch of bullshit. Anyway, all of our PCs are for e-mail and word processing." The NRC is going to have to shut down at least one paper mill, and probably many
more. How many other manufacturers use nuclear material to measure and control production? Who knows.
How many embedded systems are going to need replaced? A lot. How many controller boards can we make in two years? Not enough. Most of our boards are made in the Pacific Rim, and they're going down the toilet economically. We don't have the manufacturing capacity to make enough boards, we don't have the man-power to test and replace all of the boards that need to be tested and possibly replaced. And, worse of all, we have engineers that think Y2K is a PC problem only. |
