computers

#348 computers

Eric Edward Moore · 5 May 1989

>Brett Slocum commented that Traveller's ship's computers seem highly
>anachronoistic.  I agree.  Advanced technology levels should result in
>computers that are *less* bulky, power-hungry, and costly.  The
Traveller
>rules are hopelessly silly.
>When I design ships for the universe I GM, I substitute the following
>quick rule fix:  shipboard computers have an effective weight of zero
>(justified by assuming the tonnage allocated to the bridge is more than
>sufficient to accomodate a CPU).  Cost of computers drops 20% for each
>TL above the minimum needed to construct a particular model, down to
>20% of original cost (i.e., 4 TL's above minimum), and 5% per TL
>thereafter.  Computers do not explicitly require EP.

The above suggestion sounds rather good, however the rules are
still a little poor in that the traveller computers still cannot do much.
For example the CPU times of human use programs (like library data
and anti-hijack ) shold me zero. The relative amount of time for the
computer to bring up a file for a person to read is minimal, and
Anti Hijack only has to be called when someone want's to open
a door. The door probably has all the hardware required to scan
all the computer has to do is fetch a file from "hard" storage
and compare it to the input. These computers are certainantly
large multi processor jobs so all the computer does is hold the
door untill a processor is free and then speeds the verification
through.

	-Love Kisses and a Neutron Bomb
		-Eric the Finn
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#351 Re: computers

Edwin Wiles · 6 May 1989 · reply to #348

Eric the Finn writes:
> For example the CPU times of human use programs (like library data
> and anti-hijack ) shold me zero. The relative amount of time for the
> computer to bring up a file for a person to read is minimal, and
> Anti Hijack only has to be called when someone want's to open
> a door. The door probably has all the hardware required to scan
> all the computer has to do is fetch a file from "hard" storage
> and compare it to the input. These computers are certainantly
> large multi processor jobs so all the computer does is hold the
> door untill a processor is free and then speeds the verification
> through.

Awwww, you can't do that!  It would make it nearly impossible to hijack
a ship!  Consider this, as the hardware gets better, programmers constantly
push the machine to the edges of it's ability.  It is quite likely that
as happens now, the machine is operating on the verge of overload.  When
one is about to jump, one turns off programs extraneous to performing the
jump so that one has spare capacity.  Of course, you could defeat this
problem by buying a large computer, and 'smaller' more efficient programs
to run on it.

How's that?

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