[userbinator]

Your question got me thinking what’s the MTBF of modern CPUs? My google-fu failed me finding any reliable source of this, but I’m sure it’s long, 10+ years.

Probably decreasing, and soon not much longer than warranty period... the transistors have gotten so small that they're on the threshold of barely working even in normal operation.

As for older CPUs, they could definitely last many decades because of the lower stresses of larger process sizes, and they were designed with much higher margins.

[CyberDildonics]

Do you have anything to back this up?

[versteegen]

According to the paper linked in another comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12373015), apparently the high-k dielectric nodes used at 45nm and below show ~5x times worse NBTI ageing than non-high-k 45nm PMOS gates, which decides the tolerances that are selected to provide X years of life.

(IANAEE)