Frautschi's Embedded Systems Update: On the Embedded Front

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

ON THE EMBEDDED FRONT (Mark)

[Mark] added some background effects to http://www.tmn.com/~frautsch/y2k2.html and collected some links of noncompliant embedded systems under the third reference. In on-air interviews, several callers have asked [Mark] to name asked (and in one case demanded) that [he] name a single example of a failed embedded system...

~C~

-- Critt Jarvis (Wilmington, NC) (critt@critt.com), January 26, 1999

Answers

Critt,

I would like to ask ... what is the purpose of asking (or demanding) that someone name "a single example of a failed embedded system..."? It sounds like they/you don't believe in the embedded systems problem.

Lou

-- Lou Navarro (lanny1@ix.netcom.com), January 26, 1999.


Lou,

The query came to Frautschi from someone else. I probably should have prefaced the post that "what follows is an excerpt from his weekly newsletter."

If you want to get a feel for my concerns, browse my personal site at http://www.critt.com/resourc es.htm

. Thanks,

Critt

-- Critt Jarvis (Wilmington, NC) (critt@critt.com), January 26, 1999.

There is certainly nothing wrong with asking for "a single example of a failed embedded system...". One of the frustrating things about Y2K is the fact that we are speculating on all these events that are supposed to, for the most part, happen in the (near!) future. So, being able to have real life examples, as close to what we would expect, would be great.

But the absence of such an example cannot be extrapolated to conclude that, if no example exists today (in early 1999), then there will be no problem at 2000. One of the few points that everyone seems to agree on is that the number of embedded chips that will fail is relatively small (maybe as low as 1% of 50 billion). Thats "only" a few million chips, so finding one and demonstrating that it truly will fail on or about 1/1/2000 may not be feasible. But, it would indeed be a nice thing to have.

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), January 26, 1999.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ