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 machine's 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 system's
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}.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {bathtub curve}{burn-in period}]