The Digital Research Initiative
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The Year 2000 Bug


Also known as the "Millenium Bug," the "Y2K Bug" and the "Year 2000 Problem," the Year 2000 bug is a design flaw in computer systems which poses a potenially nasty quagmire for society. This bug can be found in a large number of the mainframe com- puters which industry uses to do everything from run the credit system to running the power system. If the bug is not fixed, some experts predict that 80% of these important mainframes, along with our entire society, will come to a halt.

Basically, the Year 2000 bug is this: When mainframe computers were first being de- veloped in the 1950's, computer memory was at a premium, so in order to save space, programmers and designers allowed the computers to store dates by only remembering the last two digits of the year. A "19" would automatically be added in front of these two digits, so a mainframe computer would remember "1976" as "76." This may not seem like a significant reduction in space, but imagine how much it matters when the com- puter has to handle thousands of millions of dates.

The problem with this system is that there is no way tor the mainframe computers to re- member dates after December 31, 1999. In fact, as it stands now, the year 2001 will appear to a mainframe as 1901, as the last two digits are the only ones it records and the first two are always seen as "19."

Needless to say, there is currently as huge demand for engineers to intercede for busi- nesses and stop this problem from being a huge one. However, to handle these ma- chines, one must be a COBOL programmer, and since that is such an out-of-date lan- guage, most COBOL programmers are retired and potentially 20 years past any CO- BOL programming they have done.

Those who would panic say that this problem will lead to the Ultimate Doomsday, and those who are a bit too relaxed say this whole thing is an overblown hoax. Meanwhile, most in the middle say that some people will suffer, and some companies may disap- pear, and there may even be a mild change in society, but the world won't end. Re- gardless, it has been estimated that fixing this mess before the clock strickes midnight on January 1, 2000 will cost $600 billion or so.

Below are links to mirrors of sites which gave a good cross-reference of the Year 2000 Bug in September of 1997:

New Year2000

  • This is the official Web site of the U.S. Air Force's Y2K Team. This site il- lustrates how prevelent this problem is and what the government is doing to combat it. Unfortunately for our purposes, much of this team's work is confidential.
  • Sun's Year 2000 Information Site!

  • This site details Sun Microsystems's efforts to battle the Millenium Bug through development and assistance. This information is good for users of both Sun computer users and users of non-Sun equipment. Mainly for Y2K engineers.
  • Year 2000 Nightmare

  • This is a well-written site, albeit rather informal, which goes over many of the problems associated with the Y2K bug. This is not the official site of any organiza- tion, but it is very worthwhile and interesting.
  • CNN - Teen claims he has solved millennium bug - Sept. 14,1997

  • This site offers a glimmer of hope from a rather unique source. It seems a 14 year-old claims to have a solution to this mess, but time will tell if it is all a hoax or one of the greatest stories in the history of computers.

  • The above sites were mirrored from their original locations only for academic discussion, evaluation, research and complies with the copyright law of the United States as defined and stipulated under Title 17 U. S. Code.

    Countdown To New Year's Eve 1999-2000
    (in Greenwhich, England)

    You will need a Java capable browser to view this applet!



    This site made by
    eric
    This site was created especially for students of the UNC School of Journalism's
    JOMC 050 Class, and anyone else who may be interested.
    For more information, please contactdaikat@email.unc.edu