ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 15, 1993                   TAG: 9306150248
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

COMPUTER LOGIC: TIME BOMB SET FOR YEAR 2000?

Planning to write a check for that big end-of-the-millenium bash? Caution: It might bounce on Jan. 1, 2000. The bank's computer may think it's 99 years old or 99 years early.

Paying by credit card could be similarly troublesome. Or it could be trouble only for the bank. In the year 2000, a computer might calculate that charges from 1999 are 99 years delinquent - or not due for 99 years.

These are just a sample of the potential problems that loom 6 1/2 years from now, when the century turns. Computers that express the year in two digits instead of four may conclude the year is 00 and misinterpret dating calculations.

Most computer programs that make a calculation based on a date assume that the smaller number represents the earlier date. But if two-digit years remain in computers at the year 2000 or later, that logic will no longer apply; 00, always the smaller number, actually will represent a later date.

The dilemma has gotten some attention in computer publications but almost none in general media. Some software developers are working to devise solutions, and there is even a newsletter, titled Tick, Tick, Tick, devoted to the problem.

The software developers say they are having trouble making sales.

"I have to convince them that this is something they have to address sooner than later," said Michael Lips of the San Francisco company TransCentury Data Systems.

"Many companies are in the denial phase," said Robert Barritz, president of Isogon Corp. in New York, which sells software that tests the effect of the century change on computers.

"They say, `Our plate is all full of 1993's problems,' " Barritz said. "We of course think that's foolish because they're going to turn this into an emergency panic rather than just an unwanted effort."

Some companies face years of work to change old programs and databases, said Bill Goodwin, a consultant in New York City and publisher of Tick, Tick, Tick.

Many systems managers know about the problem.

"It's a tremendous task to go in and modify the data," said Harvey Licht, who manages information systems for Empire Blue Cross-Blue Shield in New York. "That's only part of the problem. At the same time you need to go in there and modify all the software you've built, custom to your environment, that uses a date."

The trend to "downsize" from mainframes to networks of personal computers may solve the problem for some companies. The clocks on newer mainframes and personal computers have a four-digit year.

The problem is a remnant from the first computers four decades ago. Because computer memory was so limited, the year was abbreviated on those machines. 


 by CNB