IEEE- Long-term Thermal Overstressing of Computers

Author:  Kirk Gray and Michael Pecht

Summary: 
Significant opportunities exist to reduce costs in the design, manufacture and operation of systems by allowing higher use specification temperatures. This paper shares the findings and observations of an experimental study where operating computers were subjected to high steady state temperatures and thermal syscling well beyond their design specifications. The reults sugges that significant cost savings can be realized without compromising reliability by abandoning the fundamentally flawed yet long held perception and belief that reliability is mainly temperature driven. This result could enable significant cost savings obtained by extending operating and environmental conditions for both testing and end-use.