infant mortality

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	This is the JargonFile (V4.00) entry for infant mortality - Next: infinite, Prev: index
:infant mortality: /n./ It is common lore among hackers (and in the electronics industry at large; this term is possibly techspeak by now) that the chances of sudden hardware failure drop off exponentially with a machines time since first use (that is, until the relatively distant time at which enough mechanical wear in I/O devices and thermal-cycling stress in components has accumulated for the machine to start going senile). Up to half of all chip and wire failures happen within a new systems first few weeks; such failures are often referred to as infant mortality problems (or, occasionally, as sudden infant death syndrome). See bathtub curve, burn-in period.
* (text is auto-included via JargonExtension by mutante using jargon with VERSION 4.0.0, 24 JUL 1996 - JargonFile by Eric S. Raymond is in the public domain)