Obvious question??? Does computer failure or chip failure equal disaster?Ye

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

Yea, I know, its not as though this hasn't been discussed before. HOWEVER, my question pertains to how 'serious' the consequences of failures will be. Maybe because nothing like this has happened before, noone really does know. Are we hoping against hope, have we underestimated the scope of the disaster. I wish someone in the field could give us a certain answer, one way or another. This is computer 'science', isn't it?

-- so (so@so.so), December 02, 1999

Answers

That's like asking, if the engine fails, does the plane crash?

Not every computer is vital. Not every chip is vital. Some systems are redundant, so if one "engine" fails, the airplane can still get places on the other three "engines". Unless it was a single engine plane.

-- Brian McLaughlin (brianm@ims.com), December 02, 1999.


Death from a thousand cuts--a thousand little failures that back up this or that and we're in a hellofa stew.

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), December 02, 1999.

Yes, it does equal disaster. All computers all over the world will enter an unnatural state at roughly the same time. Things will be happening fast and furious and there won't be enough people to resolve cascading failures. Remember, this is not like a natural disaster where any able bodied person can help in the recovery. Y2k is a disaster that can only be resolved by highly trained software grunts.

-- fatanddumb (fatdumb@nd.happy), December 02, 1999.

so,

Computer science is not about predicting the impact of loss of the computer, nor the degree to which failure must occur before the result becomes unsafe or unusable.

.........everyone has a different definition of disaster. If I fall off a cliff, it's disaster, if you fall off the same cliff, it's a shame.

Hey, look at it this way, MR CEO talks about 40-60% power outages for a couple of weeks. If you don't lose power, that's not bad at all. If you can throttle back on gas consumption, and if you don't need food or clothing or drugs or all of the other things that might be a problem -- or if they continue to be delivered to your area for some strange reason, then it's not a disaster.

-- no (easy@answers.here), December 02, 1999.


If a computer generated report has the wrong date on it, that's probably no big deal. If a robot fails and a production line has to stop, operators may get to twiddle their thumbs until the robot is fixed. If it takes 30 minutes to fix the robot, they'll twiddle their thumbs for 30 minutes. If it takes 30 minutes to repair the robot, but the experts have four other 30 minute jobs to do first, that's two and one-half hours of thumb twiddling. The effects of computer problems vary, but can be compounded by how long it takes for the systems staff to repair them. Staffs will probably be busier than usual in January 2000.

-- Richard Greene (Rgreene2@ford.com), December 02, 1999.


The Embedded Systems Fault Casebook

This link details different y2k problems found in embedded chips. Some of the consequences are serious. Some aren't. There are billions (and billions) of embedded chips with different logic sequences programmed into them. It is impossible to make a blanket statement that covers all of them.

Here's what we know. Some unknown but large number of number of embedded systems exist. Of this large number anywhere between <1% and 15% have y2k issues. Of the chips that have y2k issues some smaller percentage have issues that could have a serious impact on the business. Of that percentage, some smaller percentage have problems that could cause a catastrophic event. There is no way of giving good numbers because there are no exact figures available on chip numbers or exact percentages.

My guess is that for most people, the direct consequences of embedded chip failures won't be that bad. But it will have disastrous and deadly effects in some areas.

-- John Ainsworth (ainsje00@wfu.edu), December 02, 1999.


Enough + Disasterous Consequences = TEOTWAWKI

-- so (so@so.so), December 02, 1999.

Computers are the brain of the world. How much of a human brain has to fail due to alcohol, drugs, diesease, before that person is unsafe to drive?, not allowed to handle money?, be put away in a home?

Do you want a computer with parkinsons disease flying your plane?, with dislexia running your nuclear power plant?, with alzheimers running your investments?

I think we are in for cascading, compounding inbound spiral.

For want of a nail.....................the kingdom was lost.

-- woody (woody11420@aol.com), December 03, 1999.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ