A lot of ink has already been shed on this topic, but by way of a brief review, legacy hardware, firmware, and software which guide the operation of underground bank vaults, stratospheric airliners, and virtually everything in between are based on a two-digit year-date value. This has worked fine for the entire period throughout which computers have been with us. In the range 1970 (or 1983) to 1999, these systems function normally. When those digits turn to 00, however, results will be unpredictable at best, catastrophic in certain worst cases.

The problem is compounded by an unbelievable anomaly in the calendar: 2000 is a leap year. Only the first year of every fourth century is a leap year. Many programs were written without taking this fact into consideration.

Mostly, however, since 1995 the people who supply computerized systems have been aware of the potential for trouble from the impending arrival of the Big Double-O and have been building compliance into them. The folks at HP Chemical Analysis Group (CAG) are no exception.

Larry Cattran, Hewlett-Packard CAG Order Fulfillment/Quality Manager, explains how CAG is addressing the problem. "We're thinking through any place or anywhere this thing could reach up and bite us," he says.

Almost everything HP CAG sells today is, of course, Year 2000 compliant or will be with the addition of forthcoming software revisions. The biggest hazard for customers are posed by legacy systems that are outside of the support window. Of course, this is not universally true. "Products which don't store data and time are probably pretty safe," Cattran says.

"We know we have systems out there that are not Year 2000 ready," he adds. "We may have solutions for them but we can't promise, particularly for systems out of support life, that we're going to go out and redo those. The answer might be replace. But there is a strategy that will help keep the customer's operations running cleanly." Anyone who has an operating rev much earlier than Windows 95 is being urged to upgrade.

Customers who have legacy LIMS, LAS, and LAB/UX systems can get specific Year 2000 support information by clicking here.

For customers who want to get a Year 2000 appraisal on specific systems they are currently using, the best bet is a phone call to their HP sales representative. Reps are being kept current on the status of all HP CAG systems, hardware, software, and firmware, and which revs will accomplish what steps towards Year 2000 compliance.

On another front, HP has also made Year-2000 internal compliance a top priority issue, to ensure that HP's internal systems will function properly in the new millennium. HP is aggressively pursuing its own readiness and is confident it will be accomplished with the company's usual commitment to quality.

Cattran sums it up this way: "This is the one deadline that everybody faces that they have absolutely no control over. It's the one situation where we can't say, well, we'll just take another six months and do the job right. Two years and two months and counting...the clock is definitely ticking."