YEAR 2000 INFORMATION
SCENSYS LTD
Rev 1.0
June 1999
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Contents
- General Notes 2
- Extended Definition
- Problem identity
- Testing
- Resolution
- Contingency Plan
- Summary
- Products
- Internal operations
- IOtech’s Year 2000 Compliance Statement
- Product Compliance Information
- Test Results by Product 14
- All Hardware
- Workbench PC
- General Integrity
- Date Integrity
- Explicit / Implicit Century
- Leap Year
- Strawberry Tree Warranty for Millenium Compliance
- All other software
- Dytran 21
- How to proceed if you suspect you may have a year 2000 issue 22
- Resource 23
At Scensys we are using the following information (© Shakeel Kadri – 1998) as a basis to our corporate year 2000 compliance strategy. However, much of our business is in dealing with third party vendors, and thus the definition is only suggestive to those third parties. Each vendor may well have slightly different ways of testing their products. For this reason, we have stated each supplier’s information as they have issued it, which is detailed further on in this document.
Year 2000 conformity shall mean that neither performance nor functionality is affected by dates prior to, during and after the year 2000.
In particular:
- No value for current date will cause any disruption in operation.
- Date-based functionality must behave consistently for dates prior to, during and after year 2000.
- In all interfaces and data storage, the century in any date must be specified either explicitly or by unambiguous algorithms or inferencing rules.
- Year 2000 must be recognized as a leap year.
1.1 General Notes
For Rules 1 and 2 in particular, organizations may wish to specify allowable ranges for values of current date and dates to be manipulated. The ranges may relate to one or more of the feasible life span of equipment or products or the span of dates required to be represented by the organization’s business processes. Tests for specifically critical dates may also be added (e.g. for leap years, end of year, etc.). Organizations may wish to append additional material in support of local requirements.
Where the term century is used, clear distinction should be made between the "value" denoting the century (e.g. 20th) and its representation in dates (e.g. l9xx); similarly 2lst and 20xx.
1.2 Extended Definition
Problems can arise from some means of representing dates in computer equipment and products and from date-logic embedded in purchased goods or services, as the year 2000 approaches and during and after that year. As a result, equipment or products, including embedded control logic, may fail completely, malfunction or cause data to be corrupted.
To avoid such problems, organizations must check, and modify if necessary, internally produced equipment and products and similarly check externally supplied equipment and products with their suppliers. The purpose of this document is to allow such checks to be made on a basis of common understanding.
Where checks are made with external suppliers, care should be taken to distinguish between claims of conformity and the ability to demonstrate conformity.
- This rule is sometimes known as general integrity.
- If this requirement is satisfied, roll-over between all significant time demarcations (e.g. days, months, years, centuries) will be performed correctly.
- Current date means today's date as known to the equipment or product.
- This rule is sometimes known as date integrity.
- This rule means that all equipment and products must calculate, manipulate and represent dates correctly for the purposes for which they were intended.
- The meaning of functionality includes both processes and the results of those processes.
- If desired, a reference point for date values and calculations may be added by organizations; e.g. as defined by the Gregorian calendar.
- No equipment or product shall use particular date values for special meanings; e.g. "99" to signify "no end value" or "end of file" or "00" to mean "not applicable" or "beginning of file".
- This rule is sometimes known as explicit/implicit century.
- It covers two general approaches:
- explicit representation of the year in dates; e.g. by using four digits or by including a century indicator. In this case, a reference may be inserted (e.g. 4-digit years as allowed by ISO standard 8601:1988) and it may be necessary to allow for exceptions where domain-specific standards (e.g. standards relating to Electronic Data Interchange, Automatic Teller Machines or Bankers Automated Clearing Services) should have precedence. .
(b) the use of inferencing rules; e.g. two-digit years with a value greater than 50 imply l9xx, those with a value equal to or less than 50 imply 20xx. Rules for century inferencing as a whole must apply to all contexts in which the date is used, although different rules may apply to different date sets.
DISC is a part of the British Standards Institution BSI, 389 Chiswick High Road, London W4 4AL, Tel 0181 9969000
© Shakeel Kadri - 1998
2 Internal Systems & Testing
2.1 Problem identity
To check if and how the year 2000 issue could affect us, we checked our key critical systems. These systems are the items that are in use day to day, and are critical to the continuous operation and service of Scensys before, during, and after the year 2000. We breakdown these items to the following categories:
Security;
Communications (internal and external);
Archiving and archives;
Computer Network Subsystem (including Internet access);
Computer Hardware;
Computer Software;
Other equipment (Photocopier, Fax, Franking machine)
Any issues that occurred outside of these areas were not considered critical, and will not be tested. These issues will not affect the successful running of our business.
2.2 Testing
We tested the items in each area using the definition detailed in this document as a basis of rule.
2.3 Resolution
After testing these items and communicating to suppliers of this equipment we were able to address any issues that occurred. This either involved abandoning, replacing, or upgrading / repairing the items.
2.4 Contingency Plan
We have a contingency plan in place, which is based on the same system used in case of power failure. This will allow us to continue business as usual for enough time to resolve any issues that were not discovered during testing for any reason.
2.5 Summary
To this end, we have resolved all known internal issues regarding year 2000 compliance at this time.
The following pages contain statements and other information from our key suppliers regarding the year 2000 issue.
If you have purchased a system from us, and are unsure of which supplier(s) information that your system corresponds to, please see the section "How to proceed if you suspect you may have a year 2000 issue".
Any known issues are also listed, with details of how to prevent any problems that may arise. The information included is the latest available at the time of print (see document date / revision).
We cannot state that any of our suppliers are following the identical testing criteria as we are internally, and so the year 2000 definition stated in this document may not apply to some or all of the suppliers listed below. The following statements are printed as supplied to us.
25th May 1999
For the past months, Analogic Corporation has been implementing a plan on how to assure our customers, employees and suppliers that we will identify and resolve, whenever it is reasonable, the Year 2000 Issues. The President, Bruce R. Rusch, has appointed a Year 2000 Administrator, Robert H. French, Vice President of QA & RA and the Customer Service Division. A team was also appointed to review the products and manufacturing process presently in engineering and manufacturing. The results of these tests and validations are being reviewed.
The Corporate MIS is being upgraded and brought into compliance. All of our suppliers of material and services are being contacted to have assurances that they are compliant. All outside services and suppliers will be compliant by June 1999.
[For specific product information, please see section "How to proceed if you suspect you may have a year 2000 issue"]
Robert H. French
Vice President
QA & RA
Customer Service Division
30th July 1998
Dates and times are represented internally within CIMScan as the number of seconds elapsed from January 1, 1970. The values are contained in 4 byte integers, which are capable of representing absolute dates up to the year 2108. This format was chosen to allow the time difference between any two events to be quickly and easily calculated. This is especially important when literally thousands of time stamps are being processed every second. The current implementation (version 4.0) of CIMScan can handle dates and times up to the year 2038. Future versions of CIMScan will handle dates to 2108.
|
"mm/dd" |
03/24 |
|
"mm/dd/yy" |
03/24/98 |
|
"mmm d" |
Mar-24 |
|
"mmm d, yyyy" |
Mar 24,1998 |
|
"dd/mm" |
24/03 |
|
"dd/mm/yy" |
24/03/98 |
|
"d mmm" |
24-Mar |
|
"d mmm yy" |
24 Mar 98 |
|
Day of week |
Tue |
|
Day of year |
83 |
The user has full control over the formatting of the dates that are stored in ASCII data files or alarm and other log files. In each case, users can select any one of the formats in the accompanying table (examples are for March 24, 1998):
CIMScan supports an exceptionally compact, event driven binary data file format. Time stamps are stored in these files as 4-byte integers. Here again, the dates and times are valid to the year 2108.
CIMScan's VBA scripts can process dates that range from January 1, 100 A.D. through December 31, 9999 A.D. Functions are provided to read the current system date and time as well as CIMScan's internal representation. Currently, both Windows-95 and NT are capable of handling dates to 2099 (WIN32). The user has full control over how textual dates and times are stored using scripts.
CIMScan's system generated file names contain a two digit year (i.e. 040998#1 .LOG) in the format "mmddyy#L.LOG" where "yy" is the year. The earliest possible CIMScan log file year is "95." Therefore, log file dates are fully discernible by the user to the year 2094.
CIMScan also provides the optional ability to interface directly with spreadsheets and databases. In these cases, time stamps are converted from CIMScan's internal time format. The individual characteristics of the database or the spreadsheet determine the exact date range supported. For example, long dates in Microsoft Access and Excel are valid through the year 9999. Short dates for Access-97 and Excel-97 are good through 2029. Other systems support different maximum date values.
28 July 1998
ComputerBoards, Inc., is aware of the Year 2000 (Y2K) transition and the possible effects that it may have on computer systems. We are providing this information to assure you that there will be no ill effects with our products or services as we approach the new millennium.
3.3.1 Products
The software developed by ComputerBoards does not make use of the date or date-logic in its applications. Therefore any and all software developed by ComputerBoards will not be affected by the millennium date change, on January 1, 2000 at 0:00+ hour.
ComputerBoards warrants that the calendar year change from 1999 to 2000 will not affect the functionality of its software in any way.
3.3.2 Internal Operations
ComputerBoards, Inc., has recently conducted an assessment of all internal computer information systems used in its business operations. To the best of our knowledge we have identified and resolved all issues regarding Y2K.
22 June 1998
"I am happy to confirm that CIC’s WinDAS support software is year 2000 compliant
from version 3.01 upward. The embedded CardCorder Plus software is year 2000
compliant from version 1.02 upward."
Paul Knight
Principle Project Engineer
[Awaiting statement for other CIC products…]
1st December 1998
As of version 5.01, DASYLab 5.0 is Year-2000-compliant. It conforms to the
British Standards Institution BSI DISC PD-2000-1 'A Definition of Year 2000
Conformity Requirements‘ document. Specifically, DASYLab will:
Work correctly for the following the transition from December 31, 1999 to January 1, 2000
Recognize that 2000 is a leap year;
Work correctly for all dates in the range January 1, 1980 through December 31, 2037, but not before, and not after
Read and store dates correctly using its private (.DDF) data format, and store appropriately for other date formats
As part of the testing for V5.0, several problems were encountered and were fixed in Version 5.01 and Versions 3.54 and 4.04. [Please see section "How to proceed if you suspect you may have a year 2000 issue"]
Catherine Jo Butler, Dr Joachim Hillsmann
DASYTEC USA
1st November 1998
To the best of our knowledge, all of Frequency Devices products (hardware and software) that we manufactured prior to November 1, 1998 are "Year 2000 compliant".
To the best of our knowledge, all of Frequency Devices hardware and software, utilized in the day-to-day operation of the business, as of November 1, 1998 is "Year 2000 compliant".
Frequency Devices, Inc. expects all future products, designed and manufactured, to be "Year 2000 compliant.
Sincerely,
Gregory T. Anderson
President
6th January 1999
(Southfield, MI) HEM Data Corporation announces that Snap-Master versions 3.2 and later are Year 2000 compliant. All copies of the software shipped by HEM Data since May 9, 1997 are fully Year 2000 compliant.
Only the Sensor Database portion of the Data Acquisition Module is affected. All other HEM Data software does not contain date sensitive material.
Versions prior to 3.20.1 are not Year 2000 compliant, and owners of previous versions must purchase an upgrade to be Year 2000 compliant. If you own additional Snap-Master modules other than the Data Acquisition module, you will also need to upgrade these to ensure full compatibility. [Please see section "How to proceed if you suspect you may have a year 2000 issue"]
May 1999
IOtech is constantly reviewing and testing its products for proper performance as we approach the year 2000. Testing for Year 2000 compliance is one part of IOtech's testing and verification process for all new products. We are also verifying recent versions of our products for Y2K compliance. IOtech will continue to test upcoming products. Please refer to [http://www.iotech.com/faqs/y2k.html] for the latest information on the Y2K compliance status of the IOtech products that you use. As a leading supplier of hardware and software for scientists and engineers, IOtech products are used worldwide in conjunction with hardware, software, and firmware from many other vendors. Because of the virtually unlimited combinations of hardware and software, the customer is ultimately responsible for validating Year 2000 readiness of IOtech products used with all other components. If you do not find the information you are looking for on the IOtech Web site, please send e-mail to productsupport@iotech.com.
3.8.1 IOtech's Year 2000 Compliance Statement
IOtech's Year 2000 compliant products should not produce errors while processing date data in connection with the change of year from December 31, 1999 to January 1, 2000 when used with accurate date data in accordance with its documentation and the recommendations and exceptions set forth in IOtech's Year 2000 documentation, assuming all other products (e.g. other hardware, software, and firmware) used with it properly exchange date data with the product. Where applicable, Year 2000 compliant products from IOtech recognize the Year 2000 as a leap year.
IOtech has made reasonable efforts to bring its products into compliance with Year 2000 requirements. Because the end user environment is frequently different than the IOtech product testing environment, customers must validate the Year 2000 readiness of IOtech products in their own systems in combination with all other hardware and software used in the system.
3.8.2 Product Compliance Information
IOtech has extensively tested for Year 2000 compliance of its current and new products. Information regarding Year 2000 compliance of specific products is listed by product line. We list detailed compliance information for each product.
The "Test Results by Product" table contains detailed technical information regarding Year 2000 compliance tests results of specific products and product lines. Refer to this table if you are using a specific product in your application and need to verify the Year 2000 compliance of your own product, system, application or services. A product sometimes may be Year 2000 compliant with some minor issues, in which case these issues are discussed in the test result.
3.8.3 Test Results by Product
|
Product |
Test Results |
|
WaveBook
|
Beginning with version WaveView V7.2 (Driver V2.4) the WaveBook, WaveView and WaveCal products, as they are commonly used, are Year 2000 compliant. Prior versions of WaveCal have an issue with Year 2000 compliance. WaveCal is a software module used in calibration. The issue only affects the representation of the calibration date and would not affect the calibration or any data acquired. The newer version is available that corrects these error. Please update your product to the newer version if necessary. [Please see section " How to proceed if you suspect you may have a year 2000 issue "] |
|
ADC |
These products have no real-time clock. Therefore there are no Year 2000 compliance issues. |
|
Personal488 |
|
|
Monitor/488 |
Iotech has no present intentions to test this product for Year 2000 compliance. |
|
Personal488 DEMO DISK |
Iotech makes no Year 2000 compliance claims on its demonstration and not-for-sale products. |
|
DASYLab |
For DASYLab see accompanying statement from DASYTEC regarding Year 2000 compliance. |
|
DaqBook
software |
These software products have no two-digit date processing because they rely on the four-digit system clock in your PC. Therefore, there are no Year 2000 compliance issues. |
|
MultiScan
|
Beginning with products shipped after June 15, 1998, the TempScan/1000A (V2.2), TempScan/1100 (V1.3) and MultiScan/1200 (V2.2) products when they are used with ChartView software are Year 2000 compliant. Units shipped prior to June 15, 1998 have an issue with Year 2000 compliance. The circumstances that cause an error are related to leap year and triggering of data acquisition. IOtech has developed several options for addressing this issue. [Please see section " How to proceed if you suspect you may have a year 2000 issue "] |
|
ChartScan
|
To the best of our knowledge these Products have no Year 2000 compliance issues. |
|
Snap-Master |
For Snap-Master see accompanying statement from Snap-Master regarding Year 2000 compliance. |
|
Strawberry Tree products |
[See accompanying statement on from Strawberry Tree regarding Year 2000 compliance. ] |
|
CIMScan |
For CIMScan see accompanying statement from CIM Techniques regarding Year 2000 compliance. |
|
CA-XXX (numbers) |
These are cables and do not have Y2K compliance issues |
|
HT Basic |
We have no current plans to test. |
|
IEZ11/VMS Driver V2.0 |
It is not determined |
|
Chrono488 |
Iotech can make no statement on Y2K compliance for this product at this time. |
3.9 KineticSystems Corporation
We hereby certify that all hardware, software and firmware manufactured by KineticSystems Corporation is Year 2000 (Y2K) compliant, with the following exceptions: the RTI (Realtime Integrator) software and certain versions of our H·TMS systems. [Please see section "How to proceed if you suspect you may have a year 2000 issue"] Y2K compliance means that these products will record, maintain and process accurate dates including and following January 1, 2000. This assumes that all other products used by the customer in connection with our products accurately exchange date information with our products.
Robert T. Cleary
Chief Executive Officer
May 11, 1998
Microstar Laboratories has reviewed the embedded software in Microstar Laboratories products. We have determined that the Microstar Laboratories embedded software uses no dates and so is year 2000 compliant.
Microstar Laboratories has reviewed the personal computer software, including drivers, in Microstar Laboratories products. We have determined that the Microstar Laboratories personal computer software uses no dates and so is year 2000 compliant.
Microstar Laboratories has rewritten all internal software for manufacturing, purchasing, and order processing within the last three years, in conjunction with porting the internal software to a new database. The new internal software is Year 2000 compliant by design.
Microstar Laboratories is reviewing Year 2000 compliance of its vendors, and will adjust operations accordingly if any vendors are unable to bring their products and systems into Year 2000 compliance.
If you have any questions regarding Microstar Laboratories Year 2000 Compliance, contact the Operations Department.
27 May 1999
PC Instruments, Inc., Akron, OH, USA, pledges to [their customers], that PC Instruments products are Year 2000 compliant assuming that each vendor of PC Instruments is also Year 2000 Compliant and that the operating system and associated application software in the host computer is Year 2000 Compliant.
Strawberry Tree offers the following Millenium Compliance statements for their products:
3.12.1 All Hardware
No part of any hardware manufactured by Strawberry Tree does any time/date manipulation there is only a pacer clock, which is unrelated to Y2K problems.
3.12.2 Workbench PC for Windows - Millennium Compliance Criteria
Millennium compliance means that WorkBench PC for Windows software, when used with Strawberry Tree hardware and an IBM compatible PC, will meet the following criteria and/or perform as follows:
3.12.2.1 General Integrity
WorkBench PC for Windows is designed to perform without errors or interruption of operation as a result of the current date contained in the PC clock or an entered value for the current date. This applies to dates prior to, and after the year 2000.
3.12.2.2 Date Integrity
There are no manipulations or calculations of dates contained in WorkBench PC for Windows. All dates and times are obtained from the PC clock or entered manually and saved as open text within an ASCII, WBfW, or other designated file format to identify date and time of file creation or data sampling. Therefore, WorkBench PC for Windows adheres to this requirement.
3.12.2.3 Explicit/Implicit Century
WorkBench PC for Windows consistently handles the indication for the correct century in its data files and file headings.
3.12.2.4 Leap Year
WorkBench PC for Windows correctly processes the year 2000 as a leap year.
3.12.3 Strawberry Tree Warranty for Millenium Compliance
Strawberry Tree warrants that the numerical change of the calendar year from 1999 to 2000 will not affect the performance or functionality of WorkBench PC for Windows.
3.12.4 All Other Software
The following products have not been tested for compliance for the year 2000, but it is believed they have no problems. There are no manipulations or calculations of dates contained in any of the following software. All dates and times are obtained from the PC clock, and either display it or write it to a file in ASCII format to identify date and time of file creation or data sampling. These products are therefore as compliant as the PC that is running them.
All versions of:
- WorkBench PC for DOS
- WorkBench Mac
- QuickLog PC for DOS
- QuickLog for Windows
- QuickLog Mac
- ACWDS
- ACDS
3.13 Dytran
Dytran Instruments, Inc. supplies sensors, power supplies, charge amplifiers, cables and accessories. Our products do not contain microprocessors and as such, are not software driven therefore they are not date sensitive. The Year 2000 will have no effect on the Dytran products used by your company.
We have recently performed an internal audit of our own computer software and hardware and have already purchased and Implemented Year 2000 upgrades to ensure that all systems will be able to correctly process information in the new millennium.
We have also audited our own CNC machinery and other production equipment as well as our phone system, alarm system, heating and air conditioning. We have found that none of the systems are date sensitive and will continue to function properly in the Year 2000.
In addition we have evaluated products and services received from our vendors and have found that all incoming materials are not date sensitive. Due to the nature of our business we can say positively that all aspects of our manufacturing are not date sensitive.
We are confident that our manufacturing and financial systems are 100% Year 2000 compliant and that your company will have no interruption of products or services from Dytran instruments, Inc.
[Please see section "How to proceed if you suspect you may have a year 2000 issue"] if you have any questions regarding this matter.
sincerely,
Dytran Instruments, Inc.
4 How to proceed if you suspect you may have a year 2000 issue
If you suspect you may have an issue with any of our products regarding year 2000 issue, first of all, please check through the relevant manufacturer’s statement above to see what the present situation is. You may also want to take a look through the information resource below for the latest information.
If you:
- Are unsure of what manufacturer(s) are relevant to your system;
- Cannot find your product listed;
- Require further information than is given;
- Require any materials (hardware / software) to correct the problem;
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