Tomorrow, global GPS will end its operation cycle, 'Y2K incident' can happen again

At the end of this week, the global GPS system will end its operation cycle. This event made many people remember the Y2K error that happened in 2000.

'Y2K Incident' originates from the computer originally produced to receive only 2 characters of the year. So in 1999 the computer would record 99 and when it turned to 2000 it would return to 00. However, computer programmers could not distinguish between 2000 and 1900. If displayed 00 , the computer will understand that it is 1900 and will change from January 31, 1999 to January 1, 1900 instead of January 1, 2000. Y2K has raised concerns about the crippling global computer system with phenomena such as nuclear incidents, financial crises, sudden rocket launchers .

In a 20-year cycle, GPS - Global Positioning System 24 provides information on geography and time around the world, which will stop working at 7:59 pm on Saturday, Europe time, around 7 am Sunday in Vietnam time. GPS came into operation in 1980 and was designed with only 1,024 weeks of storage. When the memory runs out, the counter will return to zero.

24 GPS satellites are still operating out of Earth orbit.Photo: NBC.

Theoretically, this GPS event would probably cause the traffic navigation system, electricity network and some important infrastructure in communication to be affected.

Globally, about 4 billion devices are using the GPS system and one nanosecond in the GPS Security Agency of the US Department of National Security (CISA) can take 1 foot in real location in the GPS time. affected.

However, in fact, the GPS counter event back to zero is not a big problem. Because during the past two years, the US Air Force, the satellite operating unit, and many other agencies have sent warnings to financial companies, airlines and navigation system manufacturers to be able to limit to the maximum extent possible when the incident occurs.

Troubleshooting plans are available. In addition, to resolve this transition in the past 10 years, the equipment and systems produced are coded.

However, the US Air Force still advises users of GPS devices to verify whether their device has enough conditions to pass the transition without being affected.

This is not the last time the GPS satellite completes the operation cycle by satellites that are programmed in 10-bit blocks and will expire after 1,024 weeks. With modern systems, researchers have upgraded them with 13-bit storage, enough to survive for 157 years.