Stress test development on a processor system

Abstract

Thermal cycling and vibration tests were carried out on an intermediate processor family of machines to investigate the benefits of controlled stressing as a means of screening manufacturing defects, and to provide data for return on investment calculations. Major items to be considered were (a) low cost of test programme (b) complete unit to be stressed (complex interactions between subassemblies) (c) relatively low expected failure rate (d) limited field reporting. Stress techniques used were mild thermal cycling and pseudo‐random vibration. Analysis of field data from the stressed population showed an overall reliability improvement of 24 per cent during the first 30 days of customer operation. Copyright © 1986 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.