'The Real Y2K problem Is Ignored
Date:
Mon, 23 Mar 1998 13:06:50 -0600
From:
fedinfo@halifax.com
Organization:
Deja News - The Leader in Internet Discussion
Newsgroups:
comp.software.year-2000
The potential failures of embedded systems in the year 2000 are monumental.
Leon Kappelman, co-chair of the Society for Information Management's Year 2000
Working Group said, "this is potentially the most destructive part of the Year
2000 problem."
Of the four billion microprocessors manufactured in 1996 alone, 90 percent --
3.6 billion -- went into embedded systems. The sheer number may have stunned
manufacturers into denial while the undeniable ubiquity complicates the task
of debugging at the same time that it assures that nearly everyone with an
electrical outlet will be adversely affected.
While media attention has been focused on the desktop and the mainframe,
little attention is being paid to embedded systems, the systems that run
everything from nuclear power plants to pacemakers, aircraft, military weapons
systems, alarms, elevators, microwave ovens, fax machines and most every other
"smart" appliance and everyday item with a virtual IQ over 13.
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"Blood will run in the streets."
"That's how Leon Kappelman describes the potential failures of embedded
systems in the year 2000. He ought to know; he's co-chair of the Society
for Information Management's Year 2000 Working Group. "This is potentially the
most destructive part of the year-2000 problem," he says. "
------------
This is the pricipal reason that I believe that the remediation is futile.
Mainstream hardware/software issues are only a small part of the real problem.
While the dollar amounts being spent to remediate mainstream IT functions are
colossal, the Embedded systems problem dwarfs it. On the whole, it is being
completely ignored.
<snip> |
