I highly respect your opinion. Although I've come across some assemblies
recently that have provided some interesting challenges. PTH-to-SMT sockets that
have to be soldered to what looks like a BGA footprint on the board , then
BGA's having to be attached to PTH adapters to plug into the socket on the
board...I've always thought, "What a scenic route to get to the final
destination!"...I wondered why the BGA isn't soldered directly on the board.

I understand that quick rework for a failed processesor, or other critical
device might be the motivation behind this design, but I've always wondered
about how reliable a socketed device would be...how many devices have been changed
out because it might have been thought it failed. When it was merely a
connection issue...

One of the first things our In-flight technicians did in system problems with
any of the avionics onboard P-3 Orion Anti-submarine aircraft that I flew on,
was to take the offending card out of the socket it was plugged into, and
re-insert it. If that didn't work, then the card would come out again, and the
contacts were scrubbed with a pencil erasure and the card re-inserted. I know a
lot of you are cringing at the thought of this, but most of the time things
would start working again. They did what they had to do to keep things working
when you were 700-miles out at sea tracking a submarine...this method was
something to do, that was passed down from IFT to IFT over years. Electronics need
to be "Sailor-proofed", and I say that being a sailor for 15-years...

-Steve Gregory-
Unfortunately we have used numerous sockets in fielded equipment with
significant quality issues.  Based on this, we are prohibiting use of sockets for new
design equipment.  Most military equipment prohibits use of sockets (ref
historical MIL-STD-2000).  In my opinion, no equipment that is intended for long
term reliability should ever use sockets.

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