this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2024
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I know it's not the same process, but I've been hearing about silicon degradation for at least 2 decades now, but I've never seen evidence that it's actually a thing.
By the way, I also have an Amiga 500 from late 80's, that is still working! If silicon degradation was actually a thing, how is that even possible? Obviously they can't last forever, but for sure they have always been able to last way beyond the point where they become obsolete.
Airports sometimes still use equipment from the 70's and 80's too. So I doubt degradation is actually a thing, even though modern processes may not be able to last for 60 years, I maintain that degradation in just a couple of years should be impossible.
Modern CPUs have transistors that are orders of magnitude smaller than the ones in your Amiga, and there is a direct correlation between transistor size and how much abuse they can take. Additionally, it only happens when the device is on (and for modern CPUs, not so much when idle, much more when the device is turbo-ing and actually at the high voltages). You can expect silicon degradation to become a thing you actually need to worry about as CPU feature sizes continue to shrink. It will probably never get to the point where they degrade faster than they become obsolete, though. (a dramatic reduction in cpu improvement cadence might do it)