Far as IC's, Ive been reading on their failures for some time. As non-HW person, it looks like the physics of IC reliability get worse every time they shrink to a lower node. Variability of what each component does increases. The analog may drift more since I saw one group using digital cells to keep it accurate at 90nm. I keep seeing attempts to do magic at the gate or synthesis levels to counter a bunch of this. They already do to a large degree which is why they last 2-3 years in first place instead of breaking immediately.
So, it looks like they'd spend a lot extra with effects on performance/watts/cost to make them last for NASA lengths of time. Those same companies are incentivized to sell new chips regularly in a price-competitive market. So, no reason for them to do aforementioned work since it's just throwing away money.
Again, just overview of a non-HW guy that reads a lot of HW industry's publications. HW people correct anything I missed please.
Re:Real System Failures
by lfowles on Friday July 14, 2017 @10:05AM
(#14769859)
To extremely simplify it, we're effectively making our lightbulbs smaller and expecting the same brightness out of them. We could keep a bulb going for a century, but it's not going to light as well as we expect.
So, it looks like they'd spend a lot extra with effects on performance/watts/cost to make them last for NASA lengths of time. Those same companies are incentivized to sell new chips regularly in a price-competitive market. So, no reason for them to do aforementioned work since it's just throwing away money.
Again, just overview of a non-HW guy that reads a lot of HW industry's publications. HW people correct anything I missed please.