Dr. Gordon's report

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Ed -

Since we read Dr. Gordon's White Paper shortly after it appeared, my husband and I have been discussing this embedded systems thing. We are neither of us, computer geeks of any sort. We don't do programming etc. In fact, I was pretty proud of myself for being able to change my modum to a new 56K so we have really appreciated all the people who contribute to this forum both for their expertise and their explanations in English. If Y2K is OK we will definately have better idea of how our world works altogether so an education no matter how you look at it.

What is your opinion on Dr. Gordon's White Paper? Are these embedded systems as critical and as numerous as she indicates? If there are as many date sensitive embedded systems in everything from power plants to manufacturing to cars to trucks to medical devices to oil rigs - is this the basis for your 10 year prognostication? Will it take 10 years to get all this taken care of and back to " normal"? Will the first year be basically chaos with the following 8 or 9 a complete rebuild of the infrastructure?

Know all these anwers are probably somewhere but it would be helpful to have it all put together in one spot - if you would be so kind. Thank you.

-- Valkyrie (anon@please.net), March 26, 1999

Answers

Valkyrie,

Here's a good article on the embedded systems problem from the mainstream press:

http://www.jsonline.com/bym/tech/0214chips.asp

"Problems lurk in more than just computers"

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), March 26, 1999.


Has anyone been able to get the major controls manufacturers (Honeywell, Johnson's Controls, etc.) to say how many upgrades they've shipped? Their web pages list many products which are not compliant and need an upgrade. So what percentage of customers have actually upgraded would tell us a lot about the state of remediation.

-- Michael Goodfellow (mgoodfel@best.com), March 26, 1999.

Valkyrie,

The Chicago Tribune did a story on January 1 on how embedded systems could affect municipalities in the Chicago area. The biggest concern is the water supply:

http://chicagotribune.com/version1/article/0,1575,SAV- 9901010066,00.html

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), March 26, 1999.


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