|
|
|
|
|
Embedded Systems -- The Real Year 2000 Problem By David M. Nadler The Year 2000 problem, or "millennium bug," has received widespread media attention over the past several years, prompting even the most lackadaisical of corporations to launch Year 2000 renovation efforts to repair, replace, or upgrade their critical business systems. Despite the widespread awareness, one of the most challenging and critical manifestations of the problem frequently has been overlooked, understated, and underestimated -- the embedded systems problem. Embedded systems are a potential Achilles heel, and widespread failure of these crucial systems threatens to cause sever financial harm to many industrial companies. The Year 2000 Problem can be traced to the early days of computing, when memory and data storage were very expensive. To conserve these limited resources, computer programmers used just two digits in date fields to identify calendar years. In the year 2000 many computer programs will recognize the year "00" as 1900, causing systems to process incorrect data or simply shut down. Embedded Systems Perform Critical Industrial Automation Functions Embedded processors are contained in, or "embedded" in, control systems and form an integral part of these systems. Embedded microprocessors control a wide variety of systems ranging from critical applications in aircraft, medical devices, power plants, and complex industrial processes; to relatively mundane applications found in automobiles, VCRs, fax machines, and elevators. Embedded systems are everywhere and they are no less vulnerable to the millennium bug than the traditional information technology systems that have received the bulk of management's attention. Embedded systems are far more difficult to fix than information technology systems from both a management and a technical perspective, and often must be replaced rather than repaired or upgraded.An important and often overlooked reality is that the world's manufacturing and industrial infrastructure is precariously dependent upon embedded systems for the its continued operation. The world's energy supplies, for example, are dependent upon the smooth operation of real-time embedded systems in power plants/power grids and the operation of continuous automated industrial process in refineries. Modern manufacturing operations are dependent upon embedded systems on the factory floor that control processes and systems ranging from inventory control and maintenance scheduling to robotics and intelligent instrumentation. While many embedded systems such as those found in fax machines or elevators will prove a mere nuisance upon failure, embedded systems in industrial automation applications frequently control high-value processes that will result in huge financial losses to companies in the event of Year 2000-related failures. Any automated process that is measured over time is vulnerable. Data acquisition and data historian processes are especially vulnerable to the millennium bug. For example, inventory systems that depend upon date/time stamping may erroneously determine that their supplies have exceeded their expiration date or fail to reorder needed supplies. Modern plants make extensive use of intelligent sensors that may erroneously determine that they are out of calibration resulting in fail-safe operation and degraded plant performance. As manufacturers have steadily improved the efficiency of plant operations by operating on a just-in-time basis to slash inventories, communicating with their suppliers through electronic data interchange (EDI), and automating the factory floor using embedded systems, they have concomitantly increased their vulnerability to Year 2000-related embedded system failures. Further, lean inventories, EDI, and increased use of outsourcing have dramatically increased the dependence of manufacturers upon their outside suppliers and distributors. as a result, the failure of one key member of the production and distribution chain to achieve Year 2000 compliance for a mission critical embedded system could cause a domino effect disrupting the entire chain. Difficult to Fix Industrial automation systems compromise a complex mix of supervisory computers, customized firmware and software, and embedded systems such as intelligent agent instruments, robots, and programmable logic controllers.Identification of Year 2000 issues in industrial automation systems is technically challenging because it typically requires an understanding of an entire integrated system compromised of many complex components. Industrial embedded systems designed for specific control functions often have longer lives than information technology systems because as long as they work, production operations managers are frequently reluctant to risk the high cost of factory down-time by upgrading to a new technology. As a result, it is not uncommon to find poorly documented embedded systems in use on the factory floor that are no longer supported by the manufacturer and based on archaic languages or processorsFurther, embedded systems often present more challenging technical problems than information technology systems in that they contain hard-coded logic for which source code is unavailable, and can be the source of erroneous date/time stamping and other corrupted information. The custom software and complex ladder logic contained in embedded systems is more difficult to test off-line than the code in information technology systems. Often, embedded systems are "black boxes," lacking a display or keyboard, which further complicates the remediation effort.Industrial embedded systems also present a heightened management challenge. These systems often are not centrally or rigorously managed. Standard configuration management, software version control, documentation, database administration, and change control practices that are common in the information technology realm are often nonexistent or not rigorously enforced in the embedded systems arena. While automated tools have been developed to identify date-sensitive code in information technology applications, few comparable tools exist to scan embedded applications and ladder logic to reduce the cost of assessing code.The stakes in this problem are high and time is short. Senior managers must ensure that their Year 2000-related efforts do not overlook the embedded systems problem. ------------------------ Dave Nadler is a partner at the Law firm of Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky LLP. For more information on the Year 2000 Legal Strategies Team, please contact David M. Nadler at (202) 828-2281 or NadlerD@dsmo.co |
