henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (12/14/88)
Something that occurred to me in this discussion of hundred-year electronics: the nervous nellies who are claiming that the EPROMs will fade in, say, seven years might be interested to know that utzoo's front end (the 11/44 that used to be utzoo) boots every day from EPROMs programmed ten years ago. -- SunOSish, adj: requiring | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology 32-bit bug numbers. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
craig@hp-lsd.HP.COM (Craig McCluskey) (12/15/88)
> There are various types of failure modes in solid-state circuits > which would manifest themselves over this period of time; such failure > modes include, but are not limited to: (1) undesireable migration and > diffusion effects; (2) corrosion effects; and (3) growth of micro-fine > metallic "whiskers". Present reliability design and testing methods > for semiconductors do not cover the eventualities of a 100-year service > life. I recall discussions at college that a manned stellar probe would have to have an IC fab facility on board so they could build new ICs to replace the ones that failed because of diffusion. Craig McCluskey