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Chip Level Problems |
Keywords : RTC Problem, Real Time Clock, "Time Dilation", Embedded
Systems, Industrial Control Systems, Clock Generators, Clock Chips, BIOS, Industrial PCs,
MC146818,
ICL Home Page - ICL Y2K experience shows
Millennium bug may strike early - Additional details can be obtained from Neil
Pattie/Daniel Bausor, ICL Tel: +44 (0)1753 604735 e-mail: neil.pattie@icl.com
- ICL Y2K experience shows Millennium bug may strike early. ICL, a UK IT systems and
services company, is warning of the potential for the millennium bug to strike early or
late in chips embedded in building systems, such as fire alarm panels, which are set or
adjusted manually. The warning follows tests conducted by the company on its own office
building systems, which indicate that some chips are operating with the wrong time. ICL is
advising businesses which have not begun to test their electronic systems to ensure they
initiate contingency planning without delay, and to budget for an element of replacement
hardware in their 1999 capital budgets.
- In January 1997, ICL embarked upon a program to ensure its building systems within its
347 office facilities worldwide were Year 2000 compliant. The company wrote to all its
equipment suppliers for compliance assurances before producing detailed schedules of plant
and equipment with risk ratings against each item. Some 30,000 embedded chips in
everything from coffee vending machines to closed circuit security cameras were audited
and chips tested in equipment designated as "mission critical" or of high
importance to the continued operation of the business.
- The tests, which involved rolling on the internal clock of the chip to the Year 2000 and
beyond, revealed potential failures in a number of systems. Andy Penman, ICL's building
infrastructure compliance manager said: "We identified potential bugs in three
critical systems: within certain PABX systems which could have left us without working
telephones; in building access systems which could have compromised our security and in
fire alarm panels that if faulty could have exposed our personnel to fire risks.
- We are taking no risks and all these systems will be tested, upgraded or replaced.
"When examining the fire alarm panels we discovered that very few of them had chips
synchronized on the correct time, with some even having an incorrect date. We believe this
to be an operational rather than a manufacturing problem and is most likely due to the
wrong time being input when a panel is commissioned, or during maintenance when the device
is disconnected from its power supply."
Into 2K, Ltd.(South Africa): The Embedded Systems Project "Since 1996
we have developed the methodology to the level it is today, built up the database of
tested devices to well over 650,000 and amassed 209 different tools which our Engineers
use and have used to conduct this project in nearly 120 major organisations."
- Category A: The device experiences a primary function failure as a
result of its non-compliance - without any external influence. These types of
failure are relatively rare and of the 650,000 tested devices on our database only
about 7000 devices or 1% are category "A" devices. Examples of
these types of devices are a Telxon hand held scanner and a Aircomp 3/884D Compressor.
- Category B: By far the greatest problem. A device which, as a
result of its interaction with other devices, experiences or induces a primary
function failure. The difficulty with this fault is that it can often only be
identified by examining a restricted or non-compliant device in its environment.
Devices where this error is more noticeable are the Programmable Logic Contollers such as
a Siemens S5/115 PLC interacting with any other device or program. The Siemens executive
(Operating System) on these PLC'S simulates an RTC function (time and date) as there is no
on-board RTC on this device. When this executive runs through the turn of the century it
returns ?? (2 question marks) when reading the date back as it does not recognise a year
with a leading 0 (zero). Any device, SCADA System, equipment or MES system reading this
date will be confused resulting in reaction which is in certain circumstances a fail safe
routine.
- "Another insidious problem is one often referred to as a "Register
overflow" although it is not restricted to date data reads in registers alone but in
all the data read and storage facilities available to the engineer. This results when an
incremental year counter moving from 99 to 100 results in an extra character which if not
discarded "corrupts" all the other stored and manipulated data by 1 character.
Again the device itself might not appear to have any date usage as part of its primary
or subsidiary functions but the engineer in his foresight decided to make the date
readily available in the event that a future upgrade to the device might make use of the
date function supplied with one of the components."
- There are for example devices in which the design engineer ingeniously uses a static RAM
to component cross check after a device has had an unscheduled power down. This crosscheck
ensures that the Static Ram has not been corrupted and that the integrity of the
components has not been compromised in which case it reverts to a fail-safe routine. One
of these crosschecks is to ensure that the date in RAM is older than the date being read
from the component structure such as the RTC or EPROM. What the engineer was not to know
was that the component structure reaction to the turn of the century varies from assuming
a date back a century or to the EPROM's earliest understood date through to generating #0,
??, and a number of other faulty year identifications. This fault is one of the better
known incidences among Engineers concentrating on this problem; but, what is often
overlooked is that the device itself might not use a date for any of its primary or
subsidiary functions and just happens to have a component which is supplied with a
date function which the design engineer decided to take advantage of. This error is
unlikely to reveal itself before the Year 2000 in normal usage.
- As an example we are often asked to examine an organisations vehicle fleet. We no longer
include a list of vehicles in the inventory because although we know of 9 vehicles (4
motor cars and 5 trucks) whose engine management systems are affected, after discussion
with the manufacturers we are satisfied that they are aware of the problem and a
"patch" is applied when the vehicle is serviced.
Mark A. Frautschi, Ph.D.: Embedded Systems and the Year 2000 Problem
, Copyright 1998, 1999, Mark A. Frautschi, Ph.D., Shakespeare and Tao Consulting, http://www.tmn.com/y2k/, (410) 453-9256, frautsch@tmn.com, Draft of 27 January 1999
- The question is not "Does it need a date?" the question is "Does it use
time in any way?" Examples of systems containing unassessed code include remote
control load management switches installed at consumer sites by electric utilities,
automobile power train transmission control modules and major household appliances.
- This lack of documentation makes it difficult or impossible for the chip manufacturers'
customers, the OEMs, to evaluate the Year-2000-compliance of their products that depend
upon these chips. This places a significant assessment, remediation and testing burden on
organizations with a large investment in embedded systems within their mission critical
infrastructure. The electric power utilities are among the organizations with the greatest
exposure. Utilities that have completed a thorough assessment program have generally
elected to test all embedded systems, including those with existing documentation, due to
significant variations between observed performance and documentation.
Tava Technology: "TAVA
Technologies is the nation's largest independent manufacturing computer systems
integrator."
- General Motor's Document "Year 2000 Test Procedures" http://www.tavatech.com/Files/GM.pdf -
"This information provides examples of how components may be affected by Year 2000
problems and is used in the matrix of which tests apply. As the complexity of a system
increases, the probability increases that a date related problem exists. For the purpose
of defining test requirements, components are grouped in the following component types: -
· HMI · Weld Controller · Instrumentation · Specialized Systems · Motion Control ·
PLC · Information Co-processor · Robot · CNC · Vision System · BIOS · PC/Micro/Mini
· Software · Software-Custom · Mainframe · Voice · Video · Data Comm."
- TAVA's White Paper "Plant Y2k:
A White Paper that Discusses the Significance of the Effect of the Millennium Bug (Y2k) on
Process Control, Factory Automation & Embedded Systems in Manufacturing
Companies"
- TAVA Y2kone Compliance Y2kOne Database repository
of potential plant floor Year 2000 problems, TAVA Technologies developed the database to
make product reports easily accessible on most of the hardware, software and embedded
devices found on the plant floor.
Tava/R.W.Beck: Tava RW Beck, LLC. -
Home - Read the outline of the problem and their approach at Operations and the Year 2000
Automation 2000 Home Page
- PLC's: "Critically what many people are forgetting
is that first and foremost a PLC is an embedded system itself, even before it looks at any
of the users instructions in ladder logic. Quite possibly to help cut down on the
development time of a product and allow flexibility for the future, some designs are based
around an embedded PC, and even though the operating system may not offer date related
processing to the application, there can still be a Real Time Clock (and therefore
calendar) on the main board. [Read their articles on embedded problems. I like the
one by Colin Johnson, "How I
was bit by the bug".]
Automation and Process Control -
Excellent resource
Industry Week: Cover Story
January 5, 1998 The Real Year 2000 Nightmare: Manufacturing Systems, By John Jesitus with
Doug Bartholomew
Manufacturing Systems: Year 2000 Supplement -
Sept. 1997 Please read Story 5 - When
2000 hits the floor
- "The fixes for these BIOS are fairly simple, but there are many PCs
on plant floors with bad BIOS that are used to run data acquisition applications,"
says Miklovic. "These systems probably will clip along fine right through 2000, and
will fail only when a reboot occurs due to major maintenance or an extended power
outage." - Dan Miklovic, a senior analyst for Gartner Group.
David Collins: Embedded
Industrial Control Systems and the Year 2000 Problem - Nice article by David Collins -
"This paper examines the Year 2000 (Y2K) problem from the perspective of users of
distributed industrial control systems. The diverse nature of such systems makes
compliance testing difficult and increases the likelihood that time and date anomalies
will occur. The author provides guidance on checking for Y2K compliance and indicates
likely problem areas."
Florence Olsen (Patrick Simonis) : PC managers seek the real deal
on real-time clocks | GCN November 23, 1998
- Microsoft has warned users that its NT operating systems will not function properly
after Jan. 1, 2000, if not installed on hardware with a year 2000-ready real-time clock.
- Windows NT is not the only operating system that accesses the real-time clock memory
directly rather than indirectly through the BIOS. Novell NetWare, IBM OS/2 and other
operating systems also do so, as do many applications.
- Patrick Simonis' site is http://www.allclear2000.com/y2k_overview.html
Instrument Society of America: Measurement and Control on the
Web - Year 2000 Problem has a nice set of links to manufacturers Y2K sites. I
hope they will add some background materials on embedded problems for their members and
visitors to their site.
2kTimes: 2kTimes(tm),
Embedded Chips Embedded Chips and the Year 2000 by Gary Eubanks May, 1997
Real Time Engineering: Welcome to the
Home Page of Real Time Engineering Aviation, Power, Oil & Gas - "Engineering
process and manufacturing companies will additionally suffer the failure of control and
monitoring systems, production management systems and so on. These systems will not be
fixed and tested quickly - if they fail at the year 2000, it could take some weeks or
months to restore full production."
VAST Corporation, Dan Gielan: gielan@erols.com
Underwriters Laboratories:
Crouch: Time
and Date Instabilities in the Year 2000 "TD, Time Dilation, or the Crouch-Echlin
Effect is an elusive but serious aspect of the larger Year 2000 issue that
was discovered by Jace Crouch and Mike Echlin. Specifically, the phrase refers to the time
and date instabilities that will occur in the year 2000 and beyond on some personal
computers and some embedded systems. These time and date instabilities occur when certain
BIOS routines improperly access a non-buffered RTC during startup, resulting in a personal
computer or an embedded system that has difficulty calculating or retaining the correct
time and/or date in the year 2000 and beyond." This is a relatively rare, but
identifiable problem.
RighTime: http://www.rightime.com/:
"Time Dilation (the Crouch-Echlin Effect) fails confirmation attempts by Intel
and Compaq retracts its unofficial endorsement and withdraws distribution of
TDTools."
Intel: http://www.intel.com/support/year2000/c-e-wp.htm
Intel has been unable to duplicate the "Crouch-Echlin" effect. We cannot
confirm or deny the existence of this anomaly. We have tested all hypotheses asserted by
Echlin, our customers and Intel experts and are confident that we have disproved all as
root causes. We will continue to follow up on well-documented cases. Intel recommends that
end users check the year 2000 capabilities of their PCs by using one of the
industry-accepted utilities currently available, such as the YMARK2000 utility available from
the National Software Testing Laboratories (NSTL).
"Our findings are, given the data exchange between the RTC and the BIOS, that
a problem with the RTC is not indicated. In the case where end users are concerned about
the quality of their BIOS, we recommend contacting the manufacturer of the system to
obtain the latest BIOS upgrade available. Intel will publish its technical white
paper 'Analysis of the Crouch Echlin Effect' on its site in mid-January.
" [Thanks to David Hagen, ASME, for pointing out the RighTime and Intel
information related to the Crouch Echlin Effect, and pointing out the Compaq site below]
Intel: Y2K Effect on embedded components
at Intel. "Commercial systems that could be affected include commercial heating
and cooling systems and point-of-sale systems. Consumer products that might be affected by
the year 2000 issue include high-end VCRs and security systems." "To determine
the "Year 2000 Capability" of your Intel® embedded components, check Intel's Year 2000 product database.
To determine the "Year 2000 Capability" of your consumer electronic products, we
recommend that you check with the manufacturers directly or log on to their web
sites."
National Software Testing Laboratories: List of Products that meet NSTL's Year 2000
Compliance Testing Standards "NSTL's Year 2000 Hardware Compliance Program is an
open industry standard to verify proper date handling by PC systems during the roll-over
to the Year 2000. The year 2000 Hardware Compliance Program provides end-users and system
manufacturers with independent assurance that a PC system properly transitions to the Year
2000."
Compaq: http://www.compaq.com/year2000
Motorola: Year 2000
Motorola considers Year 2000 preparedness a critical business issue of concern to our
customers and suppliers. Our objective with these websites is to ease your job in meeting
the Year 2000 challenge. Year
2000 Position Statement, Year
2000 Definition.
- Real Time Clock Alert - "The
products listed below are Motorola semiconductors that contain a real time clock function.
We have discovered a potential Year 2000 issue with the manner in which "years"
are tracked in these products. Please read below.., "Disseminated Year 2000
Alert", and determine if you should take any remedial actions. The following products
are "NOT Year 2000 ready and a fix is NOT planned. A resolution (replacement,
upgrade) will NOT be provided" per our Year 2000 Status Definitions."
- Year 2000 Products
- Business Units
RighTime™ (The RighTime Company, Miami) The
author of Y2KPCPro, Year2000.Com, and Test2000.Exe.
Sysopt: BIOS Setup
Information Guide
Wim Bervoets: Wim's BIOS page
American Megatrends: AMI2000
Corporation Year 2000 Resource Center - AMI2000 Corporation, a subsidiary of American
Megatrends, Inc. (AMI), currently supplies advanced core technologies to OEMs, System
Integrators and Valued Added Resellers. AMI2000 also offers the Y2K BIOS Enabler Card as a
permanent solution to BIOS related Y2K problems. Award BIOS that was sold from April
26, 1994, to May 31, 1995, assumes that the century digits will always be 19. So
even if you set the year to 2000, the next time you boot your machine, the BIOS will set
the century digits to 19.
Electrocution The BIOS Companion
The Year 2000 Problem -
BIOS Issues
Award Technologies (BIOS) - Year 2000 Compliance
Hitex: Chip,
Microcontroller, Microprocessor.- Hitex
offers Development Tools for the Microcontroller families 8051, 80C166, 80x86, 68k, 68hc11
and for CAN.
Microcontroller.com: Resources
for the Professional Embedded Developer
Dallas Semiconductor: Year
2000 Compliance - Microcontrollers
RTCGroup: Welcome To RTC
Online
Embedded Computing Show
http://www.embedsyscon.com
PCEngines.Com: Embedded
PC component suppliers
Benchmarq Products - Real-Time Clocks -
Read some Data Sheets on some real RTC's
John Stockton: John
Stockton's Date & Time Miscellany, John Stockton's Critical Dates
The Simtel.Net
MS-DOS Collection, simtelnet/msdos/clocks/
Elmbronze Ltd
Year 2000 Computer Crisis News Service.
State of Idaho: Year2000
Home Page (Check their Embedded Systems Page)
Time
Bomb - Implications of Y2K for the PC user
Y2KLinks Year 2000 Millennium Resource Database
Rockwell Automation: Rockwell Software
Unisys: Unisys Year 2000
Home Page - Embedded
Systems White Paper - Solutions & Services
- "The challenge that embedded systems pose is that no one really knows how many
systems there are, where they are and if they are affected by date information. Gartner
Group estimates that more than 50 million embedded-system devices worldwide will exhibit
year 2000 date anomalies in 1999."
- "The most important task is finding all the equipment and systems that use chips.
It can be an extensive task because of the time required to take inventory, examine each
chip and run tests to determine compliance. You will need specialized skills, different
than the traditional IT systems skills assigned on your Y2K project team. "
Chemical Engineering: Year 2000 in the Chemical Process
Industries
ISACA - Information Systems Audit and Control
Association -
index - OSAF and its Sponsoring Organisations are
actively engaged in the support of standardisation in the embedded and real-time systems
industry in accordance with the OSAF objectives and OSAF workplan.
Object Management Group Home Page
Embedded Systems -
Position Statement - JOINT POSITION STATEMENT ON EMBEDDED SYSTEMS & INTERNATIONAL
INFRASTRUCTURE Issued April 24, 1998 Year 2000
Press Release #1 The most critical embedded systems area might be said to include
the following:
- water supply (there are over 1,000 water districts in the U.S.),
- sewage systems,
- telecommunications industry,
- natural gas industry,
- electric utility industry,
- health care industry,
- manufacturing or industrial companies, and
- transportation industry.
Netscape Teams With
Pentagon On Y2K Site
Special Report --
Purchasers pushing suppliers on Y2K compliance
Y2K bug could bite
distributors -- Fear of noncompliant embedded MCUs prompts resellers to address liability
issues
Y2K bomb ticks
inside embedded MCUs
Y2K chilling chip
makers
Chip Industry Slow To
Deal With Y2K Problem
Liability-Y2K's
real threat
Will The Millennium
Bug Halt Chip Lines-
TechSearch
- Archive Search for y2k
Electricity --- Elektrisiteit-
SIM International Year 2000 Working Group
[http://www.theinternetfoundation.org/foot-tif.htm]