The Jahr-2000-Problem, also as "„Millennium nose "“or "„y2k-bug "“designation, is a computer problem, which resulted from the internal treatment of years as two digit indication.

History

Y2K (abbreviation for "„Year 2 Kilos "“) is the name for the problem of the computer conversion end of the 1990er-Jahre, usual in computer circles. It was partly feared that when changing over on the year 2000 substantial EDP-technical disturbances and losses could develop.

In view of turn of the year the 1999/2000 obviously became the problem that the two digit year "„00 is named "“both the year 1900 and the year 2000 and a inakzeptable ambiguity of a value is thus present. The consequences of this error would have been without correction primarily wrong assortments and age computations. Further it was widespread practice to identify invalid data records by the use of the number and/or number combination 00 ("„nothing "“) however this number combination with the occurring of the yearly 2000 appeared suddenly also as normal value. By this envelope many programs treated these data records now as invalid. In the further one there was above all computing problems by incorrect difference formation and incorrect production of texts (typical example for this a dating with the year would be "„1901 "“for the year 2001).

Due to this problem, particularly by little expert humans, in the apron turns of the year 1999-2000 disaster scenarios were predicted that via this error of computer crashes in large measure would take place and particularly safety-relevant ranges, which are dependent on computers (banks, industry or also power stations), by the problem were paralyzed. To the turn of the year it turned out then however that the industry had prevented usually well - many banks had nevertheless turned their money automats off in New Year's Eve simply, in order to avoid errors.

Causes

In the 60's and 70's-years the storage locations were very complex and thus expensive, thus the programmers had saved as much as possible at storage locations. For example with the years only the last two numbers (year & decade) was used, the century ore awls, and/or thousands of years ore awls were not considered, since one assumed the programs are used anyway only for a few years in this way. Since however many programs and hardware components in the course of the years, also EDP-steered, develop always preceding program systems, one did not remember no more that it would come sometime times to a conversion to the number of 00.

End of the 90's-years knew actually nobody more exactly, in what respect the whole Y2K ("„year 2000 "“) - problem from real relevance would be. There were critical voices, which prognosticated apokalyptische versions with world-wide computer collapses, which could possibly release a world economic crisis. There were voices, which compared the Jahr-2000-Panik ironisierend with the religiously justified fear of the recent court with the medieval change on the year 1000.

Thereupon end of the 90's-years was arranged by some large enterprises the exact Durchforstung of the computer systems, in order to keep the feared consequences as small as possible. Nevertheless up to the conclusion by some media one was spread "„Y2K-Panik "“- however it turned out completely in the end that the precautionary measures were on the whole sufficient, and those whole affair less badly was than original feared.

Economic effects

By the hardware and software actualizations, which were transacted for the prevention of the Y2K-Problems, most users were equipped with most current platforms in the year 2000. This released a break-down in the sales of new systems and a noticeable recession within the computer science range in the following four-yearly period (life span of a usual office equipment).

See also

• Unixzeit
• Jahr-2038-Problem
• Grace hopper

Articles in category "Jahr-2000-Problem"

We found here 3 articles.

Related Websites

We found here 3 related websites.

• AG RVS - Das Jahr-2000-Problem: Ein Vortrag
  www.uni-bielefeld.de/y2k/index.html: Offizielle Informationsseiten der Jahr-2000-Taskforce der Universit


• AG RVS - The Year 2000 Problem / Das Jahr-2000-Problem
  Die Uni-BI und "das" Jahr-2000-Problem (German. Slides for a presentation to the Computing Advisory Committee of the University of Bielefeld on 5 February ...


• Re: [lll]: "Jahr-2000" Problem
  To: lll@radawana.cg.tuwien.ac.at; Subject: Re: [lll]: "Jahr-2000" Problem ... Next: Re: [lll]: "Jahr-2000" Problem Index(es): ...