Michael J. Mahon wrote:
For all practical purposes (meaning human lifetimes) solid state electronics (that don't run too hot) last forever. The occasional "random" failure occurs, but they are quite rare.
Unless there are electolitic caps somewhere. Like in a power supply. A well designed PS fails by dropping all outputs to 0 volts. A bad one can take down a lot of circuitry with it.One thing that has improved considerably is the static discharge protection. The early MOS circuits were extremely sensitive to static.
-Alex.