[time-nuts] Meaning of MTBF (was: Reliability of atomic clocks)

Dr. David Kirkby (Kirkby Microwave Ltd) drkirkby at kirkbymicrowave.co.uk
Wed Mar 30 04:16:37 EDT 2016


On 30 Mar 2016 09:00, "Jay Grizzard" <elfchief-timenuts at lupine.org> wrote:
>
> > It get's "interesting" when you look at the MTBF times on hard disks.
Some
> > of the figures quoted in hours related to an MTBF of over 100 years.
From
> > what I read before, this was based on you replacing the drive at the
end of
> > its service life (typically 3 years for consumer drives and 5 years for
> > enterprise grade disks).

<snip>

> > I note Seagate have dropped the use of MTBF:
> >
> > http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/174791en?language=en_US
>
> The article you link here actually explains what MTBF on drives is
> measuring -- and it has nothing to do with when you replace your drives.

That article does not.  But I have read articles from other manufacturers
where the MTBF was defined in terms of drives being replaced at the end of
their service life. Seagate have obviously dropped the use of the term MTBF
for hard dusks.

Dave.


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