[time-nuts] LED reliability

[Poul-Henning Kamp]

In message <20080430165656.3C300BE3B at ip-64-139-1-69.sjc.megapath.net>, Hal Murr
ay writes:

>> LEDs been viable since at least the early 70's?  Talk about planned
>> obsolescence... 
>
>How reliable were the early LEDs?  When did they start to get used in high 
>reliability applications?

Many of them are still happily emitting their faint red or green light.

>The best reliability story I heard (many years ago) was about installing 
>another trans-Atlantic telephone cable.  They used tubes long after 
>transistors were out.  They knew how long the tubes would last.  They didn't 
>have much data on transistors yet.

Actually, that's not entirely correct:  They had reliability info
on transistors and they sucked.

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