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The embedded chip problem is universal. Even after the audit, a firm must have its staff test for bad chips. Then these chips must be replaced. If they are over three years old, this is close to impossible.
There are as many as 25 million chips to test.
Whatever the embedded chip problem is, it will not be solved by 2000. It will hit.
This is from London's SUNDAY TIMES (Jan. 19).
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BRITAIN faces the risk of major industrial disasters because companies are failing to realise that the millennium bug threatens plant machinery as well as IT systems.
Although many businesses are beginning to tackle the threat to their computer systems, PA Consulting Group says that most businesses are still ignoring the danger posed by the "embedded" devices within industrial plants and other machinery.
The firm's survey of more than 300 UK manufacturing and process companies shows that only a third have set aside a budget to look at the problem. Less than a quarter have undertaken a full audit. One multinational chemicals company responded to the survey by saying: "We would be amazed if there is not a major chemical disaster somewhere caused by year 2000 problems with embedded software."
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