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Technology Stocks : Year 2000 (Y2K) Embedded Systems & Infrastructure Problem -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Mansfield who wrote (508)	7/10/1998 3:07:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Respond to of 618

' 81. Author: David C. Hall ( dhall ) Date: Jun. 22 9:04 PM 1998 Any device, item of equipment, or system that contains a microprocessor with a Real Time Clock has a potential date dependency. The dates/times/ etc. could have been set at the factory and maintained by the built-in battery until it is used. Some built-in batteries last for 10 years or more. If a device has a battery then it probably has an RTC. All RTCs (except some from Dallas Semiconductor) will roll to 1900 on January 1, 2000. If the system microcode has not been designed to account for this (and most has not) the device could fail or produce erroneous data. Note that many devices have three or more modes of operation - operational, calibration, and maintenance. At any time a date may be added, checked, or accounted for. At time of manufacture, a date could have been used for some purpose (such as testing) and never used again. Multifunction microprocessors are cheap and are found in real strange places. So if a device cannot have a date input as it stands, that does not mean that it has no date dependency. My basic recommendation is as follows: If it uses electricity, it is guilty until proven innocent. We cannot afford to ASSUME anything. Check out everything you have time to do. Establish a priority checklist based on criticality of the function and test as far down as you can get. Or at least ask the vendor to certify "compliancy" in writing. If they will not, you got a problem. Dave Hall dhall@enteract.com ___ From the SIM forum year2000.unt.edu