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To: LR Williams who wrote (13040)	3/22/1998 11:43:00 PM
From: TokyoMex	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 31646

TechWeek News: Embedded Y2K Time Bombs Forget the Mainframes and PCs, Here's the Real Millennium Bug Plague SUNNYVALE, Calif., March 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Lewis Perdue, contributing writer and columnist for TechWeek, addresses the embedded Y2K crisis in his feature article in the March 23, 1998 edition. 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. An embedded system should be "guilty until proven innocent," according to Ann K. Coffou, managing director of Giga's Year 2000 Relevance Service in her Capitol Hill Testimony last year during which she pointed out several Y2K problems including a potentially dangerous one with pacemakers. And if there's blood in the streets, you can be sure the lawsuits will follow closely behind to mop up the spilled fluids with checkbooks of companies and consultants that programmed, manufactured or even recommended these guilty products. But the litigators aren't waiting for the blood to flow. Opening legal shots have already been fired. There is so much money to be made that the American Bar Association's ABA Journal predicted last year that the legal and liability costs of Y2K will far exceed the $300 to $600 billion estimate for Y2K debugging in the U.S. alone. And just about anyone can expect to be sued. Find the complete story now at newsstands throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. It is also available online: techweek.com. About TechWeek Magazine TechWeek is a tabloid-sized magazine published by Metro States Media and edited by Tim Graham, former editor of The Oakland Tribune. The biweekly publication caters to the needs of the technology and business professional living and working in the greater San Francisco Bay Area by providing local technology, financial, and Silicon Valley lifestyle news and career information. TechWeek also provides a new recruiting outlet for employment specialists, hiring managers and recruiters looking for new ways to attract skilled personnel. SOURCE TechWeek CO: TechWeek; Metro States Media, Inc.