Re: Glass Cockpit, ages quicker ?


"Longworth" <belladobie@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1135377261.920849.26350@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Jim,
>
> The miniaturization of electronic circuits down to submicron level
> makes faster, more powerful devices at the tradeoff of shorter
> lifetime. Old PCs and monitors seem to last forever. In the last few
> years, I had two crashed hard drives, a motherboard went bad because
> of a lousy capacitor and a two-year old dvd drive just stopped
> recognizing disks. These failures occurred quite suddenly without any
> warnings. I'd hate to experience similar failures in a glass cockpit
> without backup systems.
>
> Years ago, our first microwave oven was a fancy one with
> electronic touch pads. It stopped working shortly after the 1-year
> warranty. We took it to an authorized service center and was told that
> they could not repair it (had to pay something like $50 just for the
> diagnostic). I searched high and low for one with a simple mechanical
> knob and no fancy touch-button menu & could only find a floor model.
> It has been working great for the last 15 years while we had to replace
> two over-the-counter microwave ovens (with touch pads) in the last 7
> years.
>
> About HP calculators, my expensive programmable model (don't
> remember which one) died after 5 years, the simple, less expensive
> model HP10C keeps on working the last 20 years or so.
>
> Hai Longworth

The truth is the newer the electronics the longer it is going to last. With
increased minaturization, performance and lower cost comes increased
reliability. It has been that way at least since I got into the business in
1969. We have a microwave with touch pads that is doing well after nearly
20 years. Neither example indicates anything regarding overall reliability
of the devices. If you want proof of curent reliability compare MTBF of
older and current technology devices.


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