A simple electronic assembly consists of two components in a series configuration with reliabilities as shown in the figure below.

Engineers would like to increase the reliability by adding additional components in one of the two proposed designs shown below:

a$.$ Find the reliability of the original design. Round your answer to four decimal places.

b$.$ Explain how the configurations of the proposed designs differ.

places two components in series and duplicates this two$-$component series in a parallel and redundant configuration.

$-$Select$-$

places two redundant components in parallel and once they are collapsed we have composite reliabilities in a series configuration.