Expected lifetime management

A method of operating an integrated circuit that includes a plurality of electronic components organized as at least two subsystem units, comprising:

• monitoring a plurality of operating conditions of the at least two subsystem units;
• estimating a respective aging rate over a predetermined time period for each respective subsystem unit;
• accumulating, for each subsystem unit, a plurality of respective aging rates over a plurality of the predetermined time periods to determine a respective age of each respective subsystem unit;
• and
• based at least in part on the age of a respective subsystem unit, determining whether to allow that respective subsystem unit to be operated in a boosted frequency range that is greater than a conventional maximum operating frequency associated with an expected lifetime for the integrated circuit.

A method of operating a plurality of processor cores on an integrated circuit, comprising:

• operating, for a first amount of time, a first processor core in a predetermined frequency range associated with an expected lifetime;
• operating, for a second amount of time, the first processor core in a boosted frequency range that has higher performance than the predetermined frequency range;
• calculating a first aging rate of the first processor core over a first time window based on the first amount of time;
• calculating a second aging rate of the processor core over a second time window based on the second amount of time;
• estimating an accumulated age of the first processor core by accumulating the first aging rate and the second aging rate;
• and
• based at least in part on the first amount of time and the second amount of time, determining whether to allow the first processor core to operate in the boosted frequency range.