The Computers of Star Trek Page 4

  So 3350 millicochranes = 3.35 cochranes = warp factor slightly above warp 1 (because 10 cochranes = warp factor 2). The implication is that the MSFGs allow internal processing of data within each main processing core to run significantly faster than lightspeed. Sorry, dear readers. Even if it meant something to say that a computer’s processing speed is faster than light, this is still implausible. Just because FTL travel is possible for starships, that doesn’t imply that machinery within an FTL field will operate at such speeds.

  FTL signal transmission presumably affects redundancy, since the three cores transfer information from one to another at warp velocity. Anyone accessing one of the three computer cores would find the exact same data on each. Feeding information into one core is the same as feeding it into all three. This scenario is hard to believe. In emergency situations, if either of the main processing cores in the primary hull fails, the other would assume total primary computing load for the ship without interruption. As would the processing core in the engineering hull used for backup. The information in each would be exactly the same. In other words, the linked computers would achieve 100 percent redundancy. But only if we accept the notion that they can “operate at FTL speeds.”

  If we don’t, then it’s impossible for the three computer cores to be 100 percent redundant. Though the machines might operate extremely fast, information transfer would still take nanoseconds or microseconds to complete. Not much time to us. But as we’ll discuss in the chapter on navigation and battle, the delay might prove crucial to a starship.

  Core Elements

  The main processing cores consist of individual processors, called core elements, that actually do the computing—running programs, interpreting and carrying out instructions, calculating addresses in memory, and so on. According to the manual, “core elements are based on FTL nanoprocessor units arranged into optical transtator clusters of 1,024 segments. In turn, clusters are grouped into processing modules composed of 256 clusters controlled by a bank of sixteen isolinear chips:”4

  Let’s try to translate this into English. Taking what we know about the ship’s computer and combining it with the above description, we come up with Figure 2.4.

  FIGURE 2.4 Core Elements

  Since the manual devotes just two sentences to core elements, we have to guess what an FTL nanoprocessor is, what an optical transtator cluster is, what the segments are, and what the sixteen isolinear chips do. Figure 2.4 shows the LCARS communicating with what we may call the controller through the miniature subspace field generators. The controller is the bank of sixteen isolinear chips. These chips may constitute a front-end parallel processing unit that interprets and consolidates commands and responses, and perhaps buffers data for faster transmission. (Though how data buffers can speed up transmission that’s already going faster than light is beyond our comprehension.) Again, it looks as if the architecture of the Enterprise computer is a mishmash of mainframe architecture, supercomputer architecture, and a fantasy of FTL circuitry coursing through gigantic metal machinery.

  Let’s continue with the transmission of commands, responses, and data from the controller to and from the processing modules. We’re told that each processing module has 256 optical transtator clusters, each containing 1,024 FTL nanoprocessor units.

  Multiplying these numbers together, we deduce that each Enterprise processing module has 262,144 FTL nanoprocessor units. Remember that the ship has 40 processing modules per main processing core (see Figure 2.2) and that it has three main processing cores, for a total of 120 processing modules. Onboard the entire ship, therefore, we have 262,144 * 120 = 31,457,280 FTL nanoprocessor units.

  That’s a lot of processing power! Thirty-one million nanoprocessors certainly beats the 9,200 processors of Intel’s 1997 supercomputer.

  What’s a Nanoprocessor?

  Today we use microprocessors, built from microtechnology. We measure parts in micrometers, or millionths of a meter. And small as they are, microprocessors are at least big enough to see.

  Today’s computer scientists are forging into a new area, called nanotechnology. Nanoprocessors imply measurement in the billionths of a meter. In other words, molecular-based circuitry: invisible computers, and extremely fast.

  Star Trek gives us little information about the 31,457,280 nanoprocessors that are the ship’s computer. This is material we’d love to see on future episodes. If the processors are microscopic, why does Geordi crawl through Jeffries tubes and use what appears to be a laser soldering gun to fix computer components? Why not a pair of wire cutters and some needlenose pliers? In short, why is manual tweaking necessary? A computer system this sophisticated should fix itself. A main thrust of nanotechnology is that the microscopic components operate as tiny factories. They repair themselves, build new components, and learn through artificial intelligence. They are much like the nanites in the episode “Evolution” (TNG). Speaking of which, it’s most peculiar that people using nanotechnology computers would be so shocked by the discovery of the nanites.

  Even Data’s manual adjustments are pretty silly (though a lot of fun to watch). For example, in “The Schizoid Man” (TNG), Geordi checks Data’s programming with a device that looks like a toaster. Certainly an android with self diagnostics and self repair, with a fully redundant and highly complex positronic neural net—well, such an android would not require a huge toaster-like device as a repair tool!

  Also, how does Worf (in “A Fistful of Datas,” TNG) rig up wires between a communicator and a personal weapons shield? Is it possible to connect wires from something that’s invisible to a wireless communicator using a molecular-sized energy source?

  Memory

  At the end of the twentieth century, memory comes in several varieties. RAM, which can be accessed at the byte level, contains instructions and data used by the processors. Flash RAM also contains instructions and data but is read and written in blocks rather than bytes. Storing files, such as this chapter, is done using disk drives, floppies, zip disks, CDs, and tapes.

  The core memory consists of isolinear optical storage chips, which Trek defines as nanotech devices. Under the heading “Core Memory,” the Technical Manual says that “Memory storage for main core usage is provided by 2,048 dedicated modules of 144 isolinear optical storage chips.... Total storage capacity of each module is about 630,000 kiloquads, depending on software configuration.” 5 Figure 2.5 shows how we see core memory.

  Oddly enough, no one on Star Trek ever mentions disk space, which is where files are actually stored. If core memory really means disk space and not RAM, then where’s the RAM? The manual explicitly references “memory access” to and from the LCARS when discussing kiloquads. In today’s world of computers, memory buses do “memory access” to memory chips, or RAM, not to hard drives.

  The same manual defines the isolinear optical chips as the “primary software and data storage medium.” This phrase implies hard drive space. But then, in the next sentence, the manual refers to how the chips represent many advances over the earlier “crystal memory cards.” This sentence implies RAM. Because Trek people use the isolinear optical chips in tricorders and personal access display devices (PADDs) for “information transport,” it sounds as if the chips are the future version of today’s floppy disks, zip disks, or CDs. A footnote in the Technical Manual states that the isolinear optical chips reflect “the original ‘microtape’ data cartridges used in the original series.” Which also implies that the chips are descendants of floppies or zips or Jazz disks.

  FIGURE 2.5 Core Memory

  Sorting through the technobabble, we’re forced to conclude that isolinear optical chips are used for RAM (the references to core memory), hard drive space, and data transfer (the references to floppies, the PADDs, etc). If pushed, we shrug and say that isolinear optical chips are used for everything. Each chip is a nanoprocessor with associated memory, and each chip also serves as a disk drive. Of course, each chip includes all required input/output and memory buses. Sure
. And LaForge and O’Brien crawl through a Jeffries tube with socket wrenches whenever one of these chips needs fixing.

  Our future will be with invisible nanotech computers. These computers will incorporate processing functions, memory, and storage space. They may do everything, just as the isolinear chips supposedly do everything. But in reality, our chips will be interconnected in a widely distributed network of processors and storage media. There will be no need to store massive amounts of information in any one location.

  Each computer core contains 2,048 dedicated modules, and each module contains 144 isolinear optical storage chips, making a total of 294,912 chips. Each chip contains 2.15 kiloquads of memory in standard holographic format, according to the Technical Manual. Multiplying our two numbers together, we determine that the Enterprise has a total memory storage capacity of 634,060 kiloquads. This number happens to correspond very closely to the 630,000 kiloquads supposedly in each memory module.

  At this point, it appears that there’s a slight flaw in the manual. Either the total capacity of each module is approximately 630,000 kiloquads,f or with 2.15 kiloquads per chip, the total ship capacity is 630,000 kiloquads. For simplicity, let’s assume the latter.

  So what’s a kiloquad? We don’t know. The designers of Star Trek dare not jump on a limb and try to define it. According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia, “No, we don’t know how many bytes are in a kiloquad. We don’t even want to know. The reason the term was invented was specifically to avoid describing the data capacity of Star Trek’s computers in 20th century terms.”6

  The series’ writers feared defining the kiloquad too closely for obvious reasons: people might calculate whether the ship’s computers were adequate to do all the fantastic things the writers were making them do. However, that hasn’t stopped Star Trek fans from trying to figure out the size of a kiloquad, and being fans ourselves, we’ll play the same game.

  With kilo defined as one thousand, the meaningful part of the term is quad. Checking a dictionary reveals that the only numerical term involving quad is quadrillion, which is defined as a thousand trillion (1015). Thus, it’s easy enough to deduce (as have many other Trekkers) that a kiloquad equals 1,000 quadrillion bytes. Breaking it down further, a kiloquad’s the same as a million trillion bytes (1018 bytes).

  As first seen in the original series episode “The Naked Now,” isolinear optical chips are approximately the size of a 3.5-inch floppy disk. We’ll use that standard for our model. In the Star Trek universe, an isolinear optical storage chip, approximately the size of a 3.5-inch floppy disk, contains 2.15 kiloquads of memory, which we assume to be 2.15 x 1018 bytes. These kiloquads are in “standard holographic format.” Is this plausible?

  As we mentioned in the first chapter, many computer scientists predict that holographic storage units will be the memory units of the future. Lambertus Hesselink of Stanford University believes that a cube a centimeter on a side eventually may store a terabyte of data (1012 bytes).7

  Keeping in mind that a floppy disk doesn’t have a depth of one centimeter, we can still approximate the amount of holographic storage contained on our kiloquad floppy disk.

  First, suppose that Hesselink is correct. Suppose also that future scientists will do a bit better than Hesselink’s prediction and will store a terabyte in a volume of 1 by 1 by *¼ centimeter.

  Recalling that one inch equals 2.54 centimeters, we quickly determine that 3.5 inches yields 8.89 centimeters. If we store a terabyte of data in 1 by 1 by ¼ centimeter, then we end up with something like the holographic floppy disk in Figure 2.6.

  But 81 x 1012 bytes per chip is not even close to 2.15 kiloquads, which is 2.15 x 1018 bytes. On the other hand, if scientists predict today that we’ll store a terabyte in a cubic centimeter, then perhaps within three or four hundred years, we’ll store 2.15 kiloquads in “standard holographic format.” It seems possible. Further, it’s quite possible that the Enterprise has a total of 634,060 kiloquads of memory and/or storage capacity.

  That’s a lot of memory. Which is why the writers of Star Trek are astute in not assigning a value to a kiloquad!

  Which leads us to ask if so much memory is necessary.

  In “Wolf in the Fold” (TOS), Captain Kirk has the ship’s computer search for crimes similar to those Mr. Scott is accused of committing. He also asks the computer to search for certain keywords like “Redjack.” In both cases, the computer finds matches on other worlds over a period of centuries. This implies that the computer contains a vast amount of information about life on Federation planets over the centuries.

  FIGURE 2.6 Holographic Floppy Disk

  In “The Neutral Zone” (TNG), Clair Raymond searches for her descendants using the computer. Not only does she find her family tree, but she locates information about her grandson many times removed, his photo, and where he lives. Leading us to believe that the ship’s computer maintains extensive files about every citizen in the Federation.

  In “Eye of the Needle” (VGR), the crew of Voyager contacts a Romulan science vessel through a wormhole that cuts through both space and time. They tell their plight to a Romulan scientist, Telek R‘Mor. He promises to send a chip containing information about Voyager to the Federation in 2371. But Voyager’s computer reveals that Telek R’Mor died before the delivery date. Implying that information about Romulans is also available in the ship’s memory banks.

  Throughout all the Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager adventures, the main computer is used to access famous plays, music, and books composed over the centuries. Extensive medical data on all known species belonging to the Federation is stored in the core memory. Thousands of battles fought by Federation starships are kept on file as reference, as are records of the adventures of other starships. As noted in “Legacy” (TNG), the computer stores every crewmember’s complete DNA pattern. The computer seems to contain all knowledge and records compiled by the Federation. Is this possible, even with 630,000—or 1,290,240,000—kiloquads of memory?

  Futurist Michael Dertouzos describes information in terms of units called LOCs.8 One LOC is all the data contained in the United States Library of Congress. If we count only words, not pictures, films, or sound recordings, Dertouzos estimates this to be 100 terabytes (100 x 1012 bytes). Making one LOC equal to 1014 bytes.

  Dertouzos estimates that all the information in the world, including all movies, sound recordings, individual data files, government files, corporate databases and so on, is approximately 10,000 LOCs, or 1018 bytes. This is the same as one kiloquad. Quite a coincidence.

  Jumping three hundred years into the future, we’re informed that the Federation consists of approximately 150 star systems (First Contact), with a population of less than one trillion beings (“The Last Outpost,” TNG, and other episodes). Assuming that a number of those star systems have more than one inhabited planet, there might be 250 total worlds in the Federation, with approximately four billion people per world.

  Many of those worlds have much smaller populations. Moreover, many of them began as, or still are, colonies of various space-going races. Still, even if we assume that every planet in the Federation has the same history and population of today’s Earth, the total knowledge of those worlds would be 250 kiloquads. Now, since three hundred years have passed and interstellar exploration has added huge amounts of information to our knowledge of the universe, let’s multiply that information by 1,000. Giving us a universal library of 1,000 * 250 kiloquads (which is the same as 2.5 x 1023 bytes).

  Each isolinear optical storage chip contains 2.15 kiloquads. Now, 250 kiloquads divided by 2.15 kiloquads per chip yields 116 chips. And then, multiplying by 1,000, we get a total of 116,000 chips required to store the universal library. Fortunately, each redundant computer core of the Enterprise contains over 290,000 chips, a more than ample amount.

  Of course, if the ship’s computer is in constant contact with other Federation computers, there would be no need to store all information in the known universe. In
our world today, someone wanting a dose of Brazilian music need only hop onto the Internet, search for Brazilian music, and launch an audio player. There’s no need to store Brazilian music on your PC. Why can’t people do this sort of thing on Star Trek? If Picard can talk to another starship captain with realtime visual and audio clarity, why can’t he listen to a concerto that’s stored on another starship?

  We need to mention that in the Voyager episode “Twisted,” the ship contacts a strange being that exists as a spacial distortion. After some unusual plot turns, the creature exchanges information with the ship’s library. We’re told that the entity has written twenty million gigaquads of information into the ship’s computer.

  Here we go again. What the heck is a gigaquad? And how much information is in twenty million of them? Does this episode make sense?

  First, giga means 109, and we remember that a quad is a quadrillion, 1015 bytes. So one gigaquad is 109 x 1015 bytes, or 1024 bytes. Twenty-million gigaquads means that we have (2 * 107) (1024 bytes). We’re in the neighborhood of 2 x 1031 bytes of information. That’s more than the 2.5 x 1023 bytes available in the ship’s library. Remember that 116,000 of the available 290,000 chips are used to store the ship’s library. But even if we store two entire libraries in 232,000 chips, the Voyager computer wouldn’t come close to having 2* 1031 bytes of information. There’s no way that the entity can write to more storage space than Voyager has. It would take roughly ten million Voyagers to store twenty-million gigaquads.

  Since we’re discussing information, we ought to mention that despite a communications system that somehow works instantly between star systems (impossible by all known physical laws, even on Star Trek) it’s still inconceivable to expect the database and memory files of one starship to be redundant—that is, exactly identical and always up to date—with that of another ship. Or with all the ships in Starfleet.