Y2K@UB

Could an ordinary device like a garage-door opener be impacted by the Y2K problem?

The general rule is, if a piece of equipment prints or displays dates, has activity based on dates or needs maintenance based on elapsed time, it should be evaluated for Year 2000 compliance. If you are concerned about an important piece of equipment in your operation and don't know if it has a date function, be sure to contact the vendor as soon as possible.

However, even devices that don't need to be date aware-like garage-door openers!-may have a date-aware embedded logic chip. Unless it's certain that the date-aware function of the chip operates independently, there is the possibility that the entire chip-ALL of its functions-may fail when the date-aware function fails. This is how a garage door-opener may be affected by Y2K.

What are embedded logic chips?

Embedded chips or control processors are like tiny computers embedded inside of a larger device. They can be found in wristwatches; on workstations in aircraft carriers; in manufacturing equipment; in sensors and other monitoring devices; in chemical plants; in mining, scientific, lab and medical equipment; on ships and planes; in radar and other traffic systems, and so on.

There are probably dozens in the typical modern home or office-in appliances, security alarms, heating/AC systems and consumer electronics. There may be hundreds of thousands in a single manufacturing facility.

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