Enhanced Reliability

Requires extended lifetime under extreme operating conditions. Most semiconductor IC parts used in LLC products are designed for SLC products and rated for only five years. LLC products require 5 to 20 years of service. Maintenance costs and customer satisfaction are significant issues.

Supply Chain Management

Requires IC parts to be available during the long production lifecycle of LLC productsi n the face of vendor churns and IC part obsolescence. The LLC product’s IC parts churn every 2 to 3 years leading to end-of-life obsolescence notices. Without intervention, product viability puts at risk with very few alternatives.

Specification/Functionality Evolvability

Requires upfront design consideration to allow for future feature and performance enhancements and ease of serviceability. LLC products need to EVOLVE over time as the external context changes over 5, 10, 20 years. Without thoughts on evolvability, either system function cannot keep up with requirements or upgrade costs skyrocket.