I am looking for a word or phrase that can be used in the sentence:
It is a rather old, but _________________ technology.
The word or phrase should address a technology that is totally investigated, researched in detail, and thoroughly optimised, so there is nothing more to find out or improve.
Most common term I have seen repeatedly and would thus use is, well established.
It is rather old, but well-established technology
Note as correctly point out by @Chappo below in this case grammar dictates a hyphen is required since it is a compound adjective preceding a noun.
"science can be leading edge or well established" Wiki Technology
I don't know of a technology that cannot be improved, but we often use the term mature to describe technology that's deemed developed enough to be left alone:
A mature technology is a technology that has been in use for long enough that most of its initial faults and inherent problems have been removed or reduced by further development. In some contexts, it may also refer to technology that has not seen widespread use, but whose scientific background is well understood.
Wikipedia
mature
6. No longer subject to great expansion or development. Used of an industry, market, or product.
American Heritage® Dictionary
You may be looking for proven.
It is rather old, but proven technology.
Collins:
proven in British
adjective
3. tried; testeda proven method
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © Harper Collins Publishers
proven in American
adjective
2. known to be valid, effective, or genuinea proven method
Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition. Copyright © 2010 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
tried and tested
adjective - recognized as reliable; found to be successful
tried-and-tested in British (ˈtraɪdəndˈtɛstɪd), tried-and-trusted (ˈtraɪdəndˈtrʌstɪd) or US and Canadian tried-and-true (ˈtraɪdəndˈtruː) adjective recognized as reliable; found to be successful
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/tried-and-tested
As noted the expression varies somewhat according to location. All of the above versions would be understandable to a British person.
As an adjective, "perfect" describes a thing as having the qualities you're looking for; as a verb, it refers to the activity or process of giving it those qualities.
So as the past-tense of that verb, "perfected" says not just that a thing is in a state of perfection, but that it has been brought to this state -- with the connotation that it got there as the result of a rigorous, painstaking, iterative process, as opposed to a single act. Thus:
It is rather old, but perfected, technology.
Ref:
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/perfected
perfect [ adjective, noun pur-fikt; verb per-fekt ]
[...]
verb (used with object)
All of these answers, mature, well established, proven are absolutely correct in my opinion, but have become euphemisms for "out dated". Whenever someone tries to sell me "mature" technology, I immediately think "barely usable in today's environment".
I would then describe this as stable:
Not likely to change or fail ; firmly established
or fit for purpose:
well equipped or well suited for its designated role or purpose
The word that first came to mind for me was robust, which a previous poster had used in describing the meaning of the word they were suggesting ("foolproof").
1d : capable of performing without failure under a wide range of conditions
- robust software
I would offer battle-tested
Often used figuratively to imply its been used hard and been put through its paces and hardships - yet still remained viable.
As the dictionary example:
—often used figuratively The Yankees' pen, moreover, is battle-tested. Rivera, and his setup men, lefty Mike Stanton and righties Jeff Nelson and Ramiro Mendoza, have a combined 1.45 ERA over 105 2/3 innings of postseason experience. — Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated, 20 Sept. 1999
For your example:
It is rather old, but battle-tested technology.
This would give the impression that the software has been put through its paces under considerable duress, unexpected uses and intense situations - and each time, came out still working!
The technology has been vetted, formed from vet as a verb:
vet: to subject to usually expert appraisal or correction (Merriam-Webster)
In the same vein as the good tried and true or mature is seasoned. The Merriam-Webster entry gives "to make fit by experience" as one of the meanings of the transitive verb. It is used in expressions like seasoned advice or seasoned veterans or seasoned strategic planning consultants.
I think seasoned implies that something or somebody functions properly, without fault. This likely includes sufficient efficiency but does not necessarily mean strictly optimally, so it's only a partial fit.
But it fits your word search nicely nevertheless because it already encompasses the "rather old" aspect. You can simply omit the "It is rather old" and say "It is a seasoned technology."
I like mature or proven, but consider refined:
It is rather old, but refined technology.
I believe it gives a stronger connotation of something that was actively improved over time.
1.2 Developed or improved so as to be precise or subtle.
Oxford Living Dictionaries
The strength of a mature or proven technology is the implication that it has been in use for a long time with few faults. It doesn't necessarily mean that it has been actively improved over time.
May I suggest the adjective fully fledged:
Fully fledged means complete or fully developed.
This adjective comes from the idea that when a young bird has acquired its adult feathers, it is able to fly.
So, the OP's original example sentence is going to look like this:
It is rather old, but fully-fledged technology.
Imagine a server software package that has a very robust toolbox of features and functions, but one very specific function in that toolbox that is used for a business critical process has a 100% successful result always without ever having one hiccup.
In terms of what is asked word for word and per my interpretation of those words...
"address a technology that is totally investigated, researched in detail, and thoroughly optimised, so there is nothing more to find out or improve."
Well this [technology] feature on this specific [technology] product has a specific [technology] function which has a 100% success rate for all results.
This technology (to me) which I speak of right here is immaculate and flawless so using words to describe it as such seems both appropriate and reasonable.
So to say some [technology] feature or function of some software package works flawlessly just because that's what you experience with it gives exactly what is being asked of "technology".
I'm thinking perhaps flawless may suit the need.
It is rather old, but flawless technology.
flawless adjective
flaw·less | \ˈflȯ-ləs \Definition of flawless
1 : having no flaw or imperfection : PERFECT
Otherwise consider immaculate if you prefer it instead.
It is rather old, but immaculate technology.
immaculate adjective
im·mac·u·late | \i-ˈma-kyə-lət \Definition of immaculate
2 : having or containing no flaw or error
adjective UK /ʌnˈbiː.tə.bəl/, US /ʌnˈbiː.t̬ə.bəl/.
Unable to be defeated or improved because of excellent quality.
Nobody so far has suggested commodity (noun) / commoditised (verb). Where something is so well-understood that anyone can make a new one cheaply, that won't be any better than the other options.
I work in the development of new technology and we often refer to things that aren't interesting to us any more as having been commoditised.
The Merriam Webster definition of commodity covers it under heading 3:
3: a good or service whose wide availability typically leads to smaller profit margins and diminishes the importance of factors (such as brand name) other than price
In a technical context, you want this definition of the word understood, which carries more weight than the way it is used colloquially:
The reason is understood is meant to be complete. If it is 100%, totally investigated, researched into detail, thoroughly optimised so there is nothing more to find out or improve, in science it is referred to as understood. Examples include:
These are all interesting mathematical properties that are relevant to the description of physical systems, but they cannot be used as a catch-all, by saying that eventually all (un-understood) physical systems will be understood in terms of non-linearity.
And
On the other hand, it has been found that many effects occuring in natural and man-made system of propagating waves can be best characterized and understood as parametric interactions of waves.
In both the these examples, the understood concept is a fully studied one that can be safely used as a building block for more complicated models because there is nothing more to learn about it.
Streamlined may fit your needs.
It is rather old, but streamlined technology.
adjective - designed or organized to give maximum efficiency; compact.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/streamlined
I somewhat prefer this since it doesn't speak to the "newness" of the technology but it does imply that it is optimized or researched/planned in detail.
The phrase that comes to mind immediately for me is a well oiled machine.
Macmillan dictionary notes that the adjective phrase describes something that "operates without problems;" Merriam-Webster uses the defining phrase "smoothly functioning."
The word or the phrase should address a technology, which is totally investigated, researched into detail, thoroughly optimised so there is nothing more to find out or improve.
"Well-oiled" indicates that everything is running optimally with no clear room for improvement and no implied efforts toward further investigation or research, but rather continuing with the great status quo. Also, with more and more machines going digital, use of this phrase would cause a mental association with older technology, but technology that is still functioning well.
I think the current top two answers are probably the ones I'd use. However, depending on your context you may prefer the term exhaustive.
It is rather old, but exhaustive technology.
You might have the modify the sentence to add more context for it to make sense since the word exhaustive rarely stands on its own, but to me it conveys the idea that the technology has covered all the bases, so to speak. They've thought of everything.
There is a common acronym for this, used in computing and engineering, which is
COTS - "commercial off-the-shelf" - i.e. you can buy it ready made without having to do any research to invent it yourself, and without needing to understand every detail of how it works.
It is rather old, but COTS technology.
