MIL reliability: a new approach
Article Abstract:
US Department of Defense (DOD) Military Handbook MIL-HDBK-217 may soon be upgraded to be more current with the latest developments in integrated circuit technology. The US Air Force Rome Air Development Center, now the Rome Laboratory in Rome NY, developed the handbook in the 1960s and it soon became a widely used tool for reliability prediction. The latest revision, 217F, was issued Dec 2, 1991 and specifies uniform methods for estimating inherent reliability of military electronic equipment and systems. Factors must be varied by system designers to bring estimated reliability in line with required reliability, and this may require a change in the selection of components or the operating conditions. The handbook should be used in the field as a leading indicator that provides a relative measure of expected reliability; its data base derives from about 35 technical reports generated from contractor studies. However a basic flaw is considered to be the lack of failure diagnosis, analysis and feedback. The US Army Materiel Command has authorized a $1 million program to institute a transition from reliance on the Handbook.
Publication Name: IEEE Spectrum
Subject: Engineering and manufacturing industries
ISSN: 0018-9235
Year: 1992
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
James F. Blinn: artist-mathematician
Article Abstract:
James F. Blinn, associate director of Project Mathematics at the California Institute of Technology (Pasadena), finds that going back and forth between the details and totality of a problem is a successful way for him to do graphic design for computer animation. The work enables him to combine interests in art, education, mathematics and the sciences. Blinn finds that solitude and silence are vital to his successful work, that the process he employs to solve problems gives him the feeling of accomplishment as some concrete details are resolved and that insights arrive at unexpected moments. Details of Blinn's life and accomplishments are discussed.
Publication Name: IEEE Spectrum
Subject: Engineering and manufacturing industries
ISSN: 0018-9235
Year: 1991
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: Building quality at Veridian Homes. Building cutomer satisfaction with quality. Standard practice
- Abstracts: Innovation in the automobile industry: a new era. Carbosiloxane polymers for chemical sensors. Dimerized isobutene: an alternative to MTBE
- Abstracts: Lens manufacture polishes up its act. A segmented approach to friction reduction. Wire lights point the way
- Abstracts: Asiapower 2000: what's next. Charles H. Townes: masers, lasers, and more
- Abstracts: A security roundtable. Upgrading the internet