Life span of an HP Calculator

[AnnoyedOne]

When I was studying electronic/electrical engineering we were taught about the life of semiconductors, calculating MTBF (Mean-Time-Before-Failure) and so on.

https://www.eetimes.com/the-lifetime-of-...conductor/

These days consumer electronics has lifetimes measured in months, maybe years, so MTBF likely isn't even a factor these days.

For old calculators I'd guess that mechanical issues (keys, switches) would fail before the electronics did--on average.

Another factor, IMO, is that semiconductor failures often occur due to transients (e.g. power-on). Since many of the old calculators (e.g. the Voyager line) are continuously powered (only the display is turned "off"), as are most modern devices, I wouldn't expect the failure rate to be as high.

My 2c.

A1