2 ms·

10 year lifetime at -40 to 125C Tj is remarkable. Modern desktop CPUs are klutzes by comparison.

eqvinox 3y ago
FWIW, at least 10 years (maybe at 85°C) is expected of any µP/µC worth its salt outside consumer use. It's just that consumers have accepted somewhat junk-y electronics as a fact of life. (Ok, the improvement cycle is also still quite rapid, meaning a consumer might want to update after 3~5 years anyway.) Considering warranty periods on some goods, you also really don't want to build stuff with lower rated chips—it'll come back to bite you. Imagine having to pay a professional to swap out the controller board on a smart heating system… people might have accepted swapping out their TV every few years, but for a stove or fridge we're not there yet (and honestly I hope we never get there.) Leaving the consumer space, it's just expected. If your CNC mill has an x86 control PC, it's a ruggedized industrial build, and those use embedded CPUs with better ratings. Cars are off on a different planet for regulatory reasons, same for aviation or military use.
- demondemidi 3y ago
  I worked on validation at Intel and the primary source of faults over time is electromigration in the lower metal layers and our failure rates went out to 7 years (and there are multiple scenario %-failure curves in that window), and we dialed that back during the war with Athlon. Other sources of error are bit failures in sense amps in low-voltage SRAM circuits. Hitting reliability above 105 C Tj was really really really expensive for the big die sizes of Intel CPUs in the 2000s. Claiming the crown for low-yield high-performance CPUs required relaxing a lot of failure rates. However, intel was so paranoid to begin with, it didn't lead to massive failures but remember that industrial consumers have much more rigid requirements around reliability than gamers.
  - kragen 3y ago
    thanks, this is really valuable information. i didn't realize electromigration had gotten so bad

FWIW, at least 10 years (maybe at 85°C) is expected of any µP/µC worth its salt outside consumer use. It's just that consumers have accepted somewhat junk-y electronics as a fact of life. (Ok, the improvement cycle is also still quite rapid, meaning a consumer might want to update after 3~5 years anyway.) Considering warranty periods on some goods, you also really don't want to build stuff with lower rated chips—it'll come back to bite you. Imagine having to pay a professional to swap out the controller board on a smart heating system… people might have accepted swapping out their TV every few years, but for a stove or fridge we're not there yet (and honestly I hope we never get there.) Leaving the consumer space, it's just expected. If your CNC mill has an x86 control PC, it's a ruggedized industrial build, and those use embedded CPUs with better ratings. Cars are off on a different planet for regulatory reasons, same for aviation or military use.

demondemidi 3y ago
I worked on validation at Intel and the primary source of faults over time is electromigration in the lower metal layers and our failure rates went out to 7 years (and there are multiple scenario %-failure curves in that window), and we dialed that back during the war with Athlon. Other sources of error are bit failures in sense amps in low-voltage SRAM circuits. Hitting reliability above 105 C Tj was really really really expensive for the big die sizes of Intel CPUs in the 2000s. Claiming the crown for low-yield high-performance CPUs required relaxing a lot of failure rates. However, intel was so paranoid to begin with, it didn't lead to massive failures but remember that industrial consumers have much more rigid requirements around reliability than gamers.
- kragen 3y ago
  thanks, this is really valuable information. i didn't realize electromigration had gotten so bad