Computer Types

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NoXion
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Computer Types

Post by NoXion »

Computer Types

Faster, smarter, better


Particulate Computers

These are computers built out of elementary particles. They can range from single modified particles (known as computrons) to conglomerations the size of DNA and everything in between. due to their exceedingly small size, they are easily able to use quantum effects to their advantage. The types of particles used by Particulate Computers includes preons, quarks, electrons, protons, neutrons, neutrinos and many more. Cruder particulate computers may have processing elements consisting of single atoms. "Computronium" is the name for a medium-density macroscale aggregate of computrons and/or larger particulate computers, being used where high processing power is needed but where high density would be a liability.


Smart Dust

Smart Dust is the name for nanomachines built specifically for computing tasks. Smart Dust's distintive feature is it's ability to infiltrate and saturate almost anything and vastly increase its processing power, whether it's a biological brain, an ancient silicon computer or a more modern piece of equipment. Some advanced versions of Smart Dust can even grant processing power to things that did not have any beforehand. This can lead to rogue Smart Dust being a minor nuisance, especially if it has or develops the ability to multiply.


Hyper-Dense Computing Nodes (HDCNs)

A macroscale processing unit of incredible power thanks to its density. Usually composed of very tightly-packed and synchronised particulate computers and/or specialised Smart Dust, they can range from microbe to planet-sized and bigger, but beyond a certain size sub-microscale wormhole saturation is needed in order to maintain an acceptable latency. They are one of the most common computing substrates known. Large-scale HDCNs are preventing from collapsing in on themselves either by rapid rotation counter-acting gravity, or if not feasible, by the installation of a Class 2 Inertia Drive allowing the node to be spun more gently.


Terrestrial Node (T-Node)

A computer that uses an earth-like planet or a terrestrial planet with a similar internal composition as a computing substrate. The solid core stands in for the CPU and has nanocircuitry bored into it or more commonly just the surface is etched, with the molten outer core providing essential moving parts and RAM functions, while the mantle is used for long-term storage (effectively its "hard disk"). The crust and surface is generally unused and is still habitable, although some T-Nodes devote their surfaces to comms and data transfer devices.


Jovian Node (J-Node)

A computer that uses a gas giant as a computing substrate. In this case, the layer of liquid metallic hydrogen is of particular use, often being saturated with sub-microtech in order to use it for processing, storage etc. The whole planet is often enclosed in a shell which serves to protect delicate internal components and to provide a mounting for external communications and data transfer devices. It is not uncommon to find that orbiting moons have been put to use, forming subnodes to the primary or having been converted into HDCNs.


Brown Dwarf Computer (BDC)

A brown dwarf star used as a computing substrate. Working in a similar manner to J-Nodes, BDCs form the backbone of Cyberspace, being one of the oldest computing substrates still in use. When the the wormhole network was being expanded, the ships expanding the wormhole network also converted brown dwarves into computing nodes that served Cyberspace, which for the most part was piggy-backing on the traversable wormhole network at the time. those converted brown dwarves are still in use, although almost all of them have been signicantly upgraded since then.


Degenerate Star Computing Node (DSCN)

A DSCN uses a body such as a neutron star, pulsar, quark star, preon star or magnetar as a computing substrate. Pulsar Dynamos often double as DSCNs, as the processing uses very little of the star's inherent energy. If the star is not being used as a dynamo, the DSCN can be modulated to produce bursts of tachyonic energy, essentially enabling the DSCN to be it's own transmitter.


Stellar Node (S-Node)

A star that is essentially being used a computer. The star may or may not be surrounded by a Megabrain, and S-Nodes massing heavier than degenerate stars can exceed the computational abilities of DSCNs. Entire stellar clusters can be computerised via wormhole connections, and there is no theoretical limit to how many stars can be joined up, althought there may be a practical limit.


Black Hole Computer (BHC)

A computer that uses the Cauchy horizon of a black hole as a computing substrate. Due to their high mass, BHCs can achieve processing speeds unmatched by anything but Omega Nodes, Metanodes and all but the most massive S-nodes. A BHC based off the supermassive central galactic black whole would be more powerful than the total computing power of every computing substrate ever made by Transhumanity combined.


Networked Node (Metanode)

A Metanode is a single node made up of what would normally be individual nodes themselves, such as BDCs, DSCNs, S-Nodes, BHCs etc, connected by a dedicated network of wormholes. The difference between a node cluster and a metanode is that a metanode functions as a single unit and has a dedicated wormhole network of it's own, while a node cluster is made up of millions or billions of individual nodes that often piggy-back on local traversable wormhole networks. Cyberspace is made up of several billion interconnected metanodes as well as various trillions of seperate node clusters.


Hypernode (H+ prefix)

A computational node located partially or wholly in hyperspace, that takes advantage of the shorter Planck length of hyperspace. A network of sub-microscale Hypergates is used to reduce latency and further increase computing power. All types of nodes with the exception of O-Nodes can be located in hyperspace and thus can have the H+ prefix, e.g. an S-Node located in hyperspace would be called an H+S-node, a BDC would be called an H+BDC etc.


Omega Node (O-Node)

An entire universe used as a computer. There are two main types of O-Node, the first and most common being single-use universes that have a vastly accelerated timerate relative to our own - these are can only be used once to solve a single problem, the Kerr ring that connects our universe to the other spitting out the answer before collapsing as the universe dies. These are the most powerful and can solve almost any problem put to them. The second type is one where the universe is engineered right from the very beginning to serve as a computing substrate, and has a timerate closer to that of our own universe. In spite of this however, the Planck time in such universes can be specified to be many orders of magnitude shorter than that of our native universe, resulting in a commensurately higher limit on computing speeds. In both cases however a significant expenditure of energy is required, although this is compensated by the ability to compute faster even than in hyperspace.

---<O>---

Why use planets, stars etc?


The main reason is due to the fact that nature has done most of the work for you - the structure is there to be used, and most technology is advanced enough so that "seeding" an object with Smart Dust and letting it do the rest of the work is a viable proposition. In this manner, it is very easy to turn stars, pulsars, black holes etc into powerful computers, hence the exponential growth of AI populations and Cyberspace.
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Ford Prefect
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Re: Computer Types

Post by Ford Prefect »

I have to ask: how exactly does one 'seed' a black hole of all things with nanomachines?
FEEL THESE GUNS ARCHWIND THESE ARE THE GUNS OF THE FLESHY MESSIAH THE TOOLS OF CREATION AND DESTRUCTION THAT WILL ENACT THE LAW OF MAN ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
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NoXion
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Re: Computer Types

Post by NoXion »

Ford Prefect wrote:I have to ask: how exactly does one 'seed' a black hole of all things with nanomachines?
I might rewrite that particular entry, but I imagine that the nanomachines are able to make subtle alterations to the fabric of spacetime near the black hole. I would also imagine the accretion disk if present would be of some use.
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