New Y2K Threat: Embedded Systems
by Scott Kirsner
2:00amÿÿ19.Jan.98.PST
With less than two years left until the world's
computers enter the new millennium, Peter de Jager is
losing sleep.
The world's leading consciousness-raiser for the
year-2000 problem is worried about a less-visible
aspect of the date-processing errors expected to
plague computers as they tick past 31 December 1999.
While much attention has been focused on fixing older
mainframe computers and even PCs, de Jager says that
embedded systems - the built-in, preprogrammed chips
that govern everything from microwave ovens to
nuclear reactors - have been overlooked.
De Jager, a Canadian computer consultant and author
who is a celebrity on the year 2000 speaking circuit, is
not one to sit idle. On 31 December, he announced
Project Damocles, an effort to get embedded systems
manufacturers to own up to Y2K bugs that might
affect their products, from electric razors to heart-lung
machines.
"Why did I take charge?" de Jager asks. "No one was
doing anything. The governments of the world don't
take this problem seriously," he complains - while
others complain about his solution.
Project Damocles borrows its name from a Greek
legend about a courtier given the king's seat for a
banquet - with a sword hanging over it from a single
hair, demonstrating the perilous side of power. The
project asks that anyone who knows of products that
might experience date-related failures to report them to
de Jager or his Web site.
Then de Jager will delete the sender's name and
forward the report to the manufacturer's legal
department via registered mail. If the manufacturer
doesn't solve the problem and failures do occur,
Project Damocles will make its copy of the report
available to attorneys, helping them to prove
negligence on the part of the manufacturer.
"My objective is to force manufacturers to do what is
right by hanging a double-edged sword over their
heads," wrote de Jager, in an email that went out to the
30,000 subscribers on his year 2000 mailing list. "A
sword which swings into action after they allow a
failure to occur."
The euphemistic "failures" that could occur might
better be termed catastrophes, according to many in
the emerging year 2000 software and services industry.
Embedded systems can be found in all types of power
plants, water and sewage systems, many of the
devices used in hospitals, military equipment, aircraft,
oil tankers, alarm systems, and elevators.
"This is potentially the most destructive part of the
year 2000 problem," says Dr. Leon Kappelman, a
professor at the University of North Texas and
co-chair of the Society for Information Management's
Year 2000 Working Group. "This isn't the
inconvenience part where your paycheck comes a few
days late. This is the blood-in-the-streets part."
And compared to Y2K bugs on mainframe computers,
embedded systems are tougher to fix. Patches or
workarounds aren't effective; in most cases, the
systems must be completely replaced.
"Year 2000 has been perceived incorrectly as primarily
a mainframe thing," says Capers Jones, chairman of
Software Productivity Research and another leading
year 2000 expert. He has estimated the worldwide costs
of the computer crisis could be as high as US$3.6
trillion. "But the embedded stuff is going to be a mess,
and it hasn't received enough attention. It wouldn't
hurt to expose some of the manufacturers, especially
those whose products can kill us, like medical
equipment companies," he added, saying Project
Damocles looks like a step in the right direction.
Kappelman adds that only about 10 percent of the four
billion chips manufactured in 1996 went into PCs and
other devices typically thought of as computers. The
rest reside in embedded systems. "But because so
many of the embedded systems problems put lives at
risk, there's a great reluctance to publicly share
information about them," he adds. "Whatever can be
disclosed through forums like Peter's is good, because
the public needs to know how much is really at stake."
But others question de Jager's methodology.
"I'm not sure why one individual having any
proprietary information is necessary to solve the
problem," says Harris Miller, president of the
Washington, DC-based Information Technology
Association of America, an industry trade group. "It
won't get solved by keeping secrets - it's about being
as open and collaborative as possible." The ITAA has
had a product questionnaire on its Web site for
several months aimed at helping vendors and
customers jointly resolve embedded systems issues.
Jim Lott, a product manager at Dallas Semiconductor,
acknowledged the value of efforts like Project
Damocles to raise awareness, but still voiced
reservations. "Rather than blowing the whistle on
people, we need to be working together to find
solutions," said Lott, who adds that his company is
already shipping products that will work in a post-1999
world. "This opens a real door for fear-mongering."
Year 2000 legal expert Steven Hock, president of
Triaxsys Research, adds that while de Jager's efforts
are well-intentioned, they may cause more problems
than they solve - both for de Jager and the companies
he's targeting. "De Jager faces legal risks in soliciting
information about potentially serious problems, and
then sharing that information only with the legal
department of the company," Hock says. "Why
wouldn't he pass it on to regulatory agencies who
should know about such problems?"
Then there's the issue of bug reports without merit.
"The detriment of Project Damocles is that they're
going to get emails from many, many people who
perceive problems that don't exist," says Hock.
"Companies will spend untold hours and dollars
dealing with whistle-blowers whose complaints aren't
really legitimate. It'll lead to more wasted efforts than
real results, I think."
But Xavier Roy, the vice president at Litton Enterprise
Solutions' year 2000 business unit, says some effort
focused on embedded systems is better than nothing.
He should know: His clients include hospitals and
power companies that run nuclear plants.
"Embedded systems haven't gotten the attention they
deserve," says Roy. "Just the name - Damocles -
indicates there is a threat. This is the only way we can
make people realize the severity of the problem." |
