Those of you who have followed my communiques here in our little community know that my business occasionally does work for the "US gummint", more specifically the Department of Defense. On the whole, our association has been 1) profitable, and 2) enlightening. The last is because I have had my eyes opened about dealing with the so-called "government bureaucracy" bugaboos. Far from being the stereotypical "faceless wonders" you've heard so much about, the guys I've dealt with are pleasant, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic about their work. They are also fanatically dedicated to the support of our armed services. After all, we are talking about people's LIVES here. No more of this "$200.00 hammer" nonsense! Your product or service had better be delivered on time, meet specs, and work the first time out of the box, or YOU DON'T GET PAID, buddy! Well, we did the job, on time and on target, and made everybody happy. So much so that they even gave us a bonus, (which made all of my people VERY happy!) And then last week, my company was handed a tremendous opportunity that has all of us really excited, though you'd never know why at first glance.

We are going to give computer chips longer lives.

Let me explain. With the recent popular nostalgia kick about the 30th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing, I was marvelling at all the little gems of information surrounding that momentous event. For instance: 1) The PalmPilot PDA has more memory capacity than the Lunar Module guidance computer did. 2) Today's average video game resolves program commands over a thousand times faster than the NASA Mission Control computers did. 3) TANG breakfast drink was universally detested by every astronaut who drank the stuff. Something about diarrhea... (in zero gravity? Argh!). 4) The astronauts repaired occasional wiring shorts in the spacecraft using, of all things, gum wrappers!

Amazing! And we STILL beat the Soviets to the Moon!

One of the reasons NASA did so well, was those scientists', engineers', and bureaucrats' dedication to making sure the Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) numbers were as large as possible. MTBF is the average life span of anything before it wears out. This could apply to a houseplant, a VCR, or you! Typically, most computer chips have a developmental cycle of about 18 months, and can be expected to have an MTBF of 7 to 10 years. That doesn't take into account improvements and upgrades made to the design of the chip. Those of you who purchased Pentium II-based systems in the last two months know what I'm talking about. Because of these constant improvements and upgrades, the typical computer processor reaches obsolescence long before it reaches its MTBF. And if it fails, you just buy a new chip/pc board/computer. Problem solved.

But what if you can't buy a replacement? Not because it's out of stock at your electronics store, but because the store isn't even there! Then the chip's MTBF had better be really long, on the order of 20 to 50 years or more!

That's nuts, you say. What application would require such durability?

How about interstellar space travel?

Don't laugh. Back in the 60's, at the height of the space program, Werner Von Braun was already postulating a nuclear-powered rocket engine that would be capable of pushing a spacecraft at speeds approaching 20% that of light. Our nearest stellar neighbor, Alpha Centauri, is only about 4 light years away. Given our current state of technological development, Von Braun's engine would enable a spacecraft to make a round-trip journey lasting just shy of 45 years. Under such conditions, if I'm commanding a mission that is literally my life's work, I'd want ALL of the components to meet the 50-year MTBF mark, wouldn't you?

As a boy, I can remember looking up into the North Carolina sky one night in 1957, and seeing a speck of light called Sputnik moving slowly among the stars. Most folks my age can tell you where they were and what they were doing when Neil Armstrong took that "one giant leap for Mankind". However, very few of us can tell you what we were doing when Apollo 17 lifted off from the Moon that final time. Walking on the Moon had become a common, almost mundane occurrence in our daily lives, if that were possible. (Space travel, boring? Imagine that!) Well, let me tell you, the goal, the "High Frontier" of interstellar space travel is alive and well among those government bureaucrats I mentioned earlier. They, and I, and all of us are interested in getting humanity off its collective backside, off this rock, and Out There as soon as possible.

So, they, and I, and all of us are going to be very busy for a while. Even those of us concerned with such niggling little matters as computer chip life spans.

We were great once.

Time to be great again!

Court's adjourned!

Judge Oaf
Senior Judge of the Superior Court of the BEArchive