Originally Posted by
dekruyter
"Their half life is the time that would pass before 5,000 [out of 10,000] of them fail"
Sorry to disagree, but the average 1/2 life of a cpu would be the same whether there are 10,000 or 5,000 or 1 of them. The units of decay are in "time" not "number of units". I think you just miss-stated a bit. I.E. (per your example), the half life of Plutonium is the same, whether you have one pound (or say a Mole) or whether you have 10 pounds (or say10 Moles). It is a subatomic property of the material. However, I do not know if a cpu degrades according to an approximate, mathematical exponential formula?