From the article: "Infineon did not report the flaw to NASA because the company did not know what the transistors would be used for, Fitzpatrick said."
They might not have "known", but come on, you're selling radiation-hardened chips to NASA. You can sure make an educated guess that they might be used for a probe.
I'm guessing there's a clause missing in the contract that says Infineon must disclose all known problems to NASA regardless of how the chips will be used.
Regardless, there are some people at NASA to whom 'Infineon' is now a curse word.
They might not have "known", but come on, you're selling radiation-hardened chips to NASA. You can sure make an educated guess that they might be used for a probe.
I'm guessing there's a clause missing in the contract that says Infineon must disclose all known problems to NASA regardless of how the chips will be used.
Regardless, there are some people at NASA to whom 'Infineon' is now a curse word.