Year 2000 (Y2K) Embedded Systems & Infrastructure Problem Message Board

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Technology Stocks : Year 2000 (Y2K) Embedded Systems & Infrastructure Problem

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To: John Mansfield who wrote (96)	2/17/1998 3:41:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (2) of 618

Utilities zero in on Year 2000 problems stlnet.com 'Utilities zero in on Year 2000 problems Monday, February 16, 1998 By Virginia Baldwin Hick Of The Post-Dispatch Thunderstorms, freezing rain, floods, high wind, blizzards, fire and earthquakes - electric companies have plenty of experience handling emergencies. But these days, they're preparing for a once-in-a-millennium emergency that could make responding to a nationwide blizzard seem like a training exercise. All because of a couple of zeros - as in the year '00. The two-digit year shorthand was begun decades ago by mainframe programmers to save computer memory space. It was a difficult habit to break later when people started writing software for P personal computers, devising network systems and putting circuits on tiny silicon chips. It's the chips that have power companies worried. Microprocessing chips with vulnerable date functions represent what the Electrical Power Research Institute calls an "unprecedented challenge of the Information Age." Microprocessing chips - also called real-time processors or embedded systems - have a role in dispensing, measuring, controlling and routing electricity. With 700 members, EPRI is the world's largest research consortium of electrical utilities. It estimates that "globally, there are more than a billion chips in service today. Many of the chips currently being used may have a potential problem with the rollover to the year 2000." A statement on EPRI's Year 2000 Web site (http://www.epriweb.com/year2000/power.html.) explains what chip failure could mean: "Logic and computation errors by date-sensitive embedded systems could have an incredible range of impacts - from compromised power quality to the complete failure of power generation and delivery systems, breakdowns in industrial equipment and processes, and unprecedented losses in customer services." <snip>

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