Hi,
Here are a few ideas/thoughts on Traveller III. I would greatly appreciate
it if someone would pass this along to GDW via GEnie.
Semiconductors:
A few words about the next generation of semiconductors. I worked for a
couple years on diamond growth techniques at the Naval Research Lab.
Problems with silicon: Well, it does not perform very well under high
temperatures. When the silicon gets too hot your computer will crash.
Now, powerful computers require a LOT of circuitry imprinted into them.
The larger the number of circuits, the more heat generated by them.
When it gets too hot, it will crash. Some of the more powerful computers
today require extensive cooling (liquid nitrogen) to keep them operating.
The avionics of the F-15 must be cooled by passing the aircraft's fuel
over the circuits! Silicon based sensors must be placed far from the
aircrafts engine heat in order to function.
So, in order to get a really powerful computer (model 3? Model 4?) the
semiconductor used must be superior to silicon in regard to its heat
characteristics.
The next projected semiconductor is going to be silicon carbide. I'll
guess Silcon Carbide is going to be the TL 9 semiconductor. The have
already begun to get single crystal wafers of Silicon Carbide.
But, an even better semiconductor will be Diamond. Right now all we can
manage is polycrystalline diamond wafers which are no good for computers,
but give it a few years (decades at the outside) and single crystal
diamond wafers will be available. (Say at TL 10)
Diamond (doped with boron) is an EXCELLENT semiconductor. Durable, able
to withstand high temperatures and still keep functioning, radiation hard,
and on some scales of semiconductor quality I have seen is THREE orders of
magnatude superior to silicon.
Ok, so now we have a 'BUG' (virus? Nanobug?) that attacks CPUs. Well,
I gather it doesn't destroy software, but somehow physically damages the
CPU of a computer. Well, let me tell you diamond is pretty hard to damage.
There have been tests conducted with diamond circuits (yes they have been
made already on good old TL8 Earth) For instance, a transistor circuit
printed onto a diamond. They put an Acytelene torch on it! And in the
middle of the flames it still worked very nicely.
This CPU 'BUG' is going to have to damage a circuit like that.
A more likely senerio is that rather than attack the chip of the CPU, this
'BUG' would try to attack the connections of the chip. They would probably
be more vulnerable than the chip itself, disconnect the chip and you have
destroyed the CPU.
But! If his 'BUG' attacks the basic wirings of the chip, it will be
attacking all the wirings of the computer system. That means that all
wiring of all electronic devices is going to be subject to attack. Thus
it would not only wipe out all computer CPUs but every other electronic
device extent.
No maneuver drives, no jump drives (even if they had a computer capable of
guiding them, they would still be dead), no fusion reactors, no lasers,
no gauss rifles, no plasma guns, no ACRs, not even combat armor and battle
dress with horns on it, nothing left for the good old Star Vikings to play
with.
- -------
Computers in Traveller:
I keep mentioning this, but I really think that a revision of Trav needs
to define what the computers are, and what they can do. This is why I feel
a computer design system (from the ground up) will help enourmously. I
have seen people asking the same questions about Traveller computers since
it came out. So, I'm not the only one who has some confusion on the subject.
A question I have often seen asked is 'What is all the volume taken up by
the computer?' Some maintain that it is work station volume, but given the
fact that we are now taking control panels and holotanks into account, this
is obviously not true. After all, a grav speeder is not going to have
room for a work station. Furthermore, multiple computer installations would
not increase the demand for a computer work station volume.
On the other hand, a TL 11 hand computer Which is equivalent in power to a
model one takes up considerably less volume than a normal model 1 computer
and costs FAR less. But the TL 8 and TL 15 model 1 computers take up the
same volume.
Computer Power:
Another frequently asked question is 'How powerful is this computer?'
There is no clear answer to this question. For years, I used the guideline
that the computer listed was the most powerful computer that could be built
at its tech level of introduction. Thus the most powerful computer at TL 8
(model 2/bis) would have the equivalent computer power of a Cray
supercomputer. (That sound about right to you folks?)
Now if you look at the model 2/bis, it doesn't do a heck of a lot for you in
combat. I think having a Cray as part of your gunsight or radar installation
would get you much better results than the old model 2/bis.
On the other hand, lets look at the old Model 1. It is first introduced at
Tech Level 5 (World War 1 computer?). At that low tech level, it is 100
times larger and costs 100 times as much as it does at TL 8, but it's there.
Well, the old mechanical computers didn't have a whole lot of power. I
would bet the scientific calculator I carry in my briefcase could easily
outperform it.
Now, lets look at what a model 1 can do in Traveller. Well, it can control
a one parsec jump! (On the other hand, we don't know an awful lot about
interstellar jumps, maybe the math isn't so hard...) That's not a very
good indicator of it's power. What else can it do? Well, according to
GDW's adventure 'Knightfall', the ship's model 1 computer, can TALK! Hmm!
Well that makes it more powerful than my calculator. And I never heard of
a computer built during the early part of the century that could talk!
Some of it could be explained by the fact that the ship's computer is
TL 15, and not 5, and advances in programming techniques will certainly
advance by then. But if a TL 15 model 1 is more powerful than a TL 5
model 1, then why do they give the same performance bonuses?
Wierd, Wierd, Wierd...
Maybe someone else uses a different guideline to come up with an idea of
how powerful these computers are? If so, please let me know. Help!
Metlay? Rob? Anybody?
You see the ambiguities here? These are things that needs to be cleared
up for first time gamers trying to understand. Heck! I've been playing
Trav for years and I don't know the answers!
Thus, I think a new revision of Traveller really needs to address this.
I think a computer design system would give people a MUCH better idea
of what we are dealing with here. If nothing else it would define just
what a computer can and can not do.
Thanks,
Scott S. Kellogg
PS. If volunteers are needed for evaluating the Traveller Revision,
my address:
Scott S. Kellogg
Physics Dept.
Allison Laboratory
[address removed]
Home [phone removed]
Office [phone removed]