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sumghai — 25th Century Starfleet Isolinear Chips
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Published: 2012-10-09 04:51:35 +0000 UTC; Views: 6845; Favourites: 63; Downloads: 425
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Description
Based on those seen in various Star Trek TV series from TNG onwards.Isolinear optical chips are data storage devices pivotal to the functioning of many Federation and Starfleet starships, starbases and other systems, common used in PADD memory, equipment configuration switching circuits, library databanks and as portable "flash drives" (to borrow a early 21st Century vernacular).
Each chip features onboard nanotech processors to aid in on-chip read-write operations as well as up to 2.15 kiloquads of memory. Chips are labelled both numerically in the NN-NNNN format, and a short text label underneath.
Isolinear chips prior to the 25th Century were prone to data corruption due to improper handling outside the benign environment of a computer core, unless coated in a thin layer of protective polymer that does not affect normal read-write procedures. By the time of Odyssey, all chips come with this polymer coating as standard due to the increased likelihood of constant in-field hot-swapping.
The unique shape permits correct insertion (flat side first) into standardised slots in Federation Starfleet systems.
Drafted in Solidworks 2008, rendered using Photoworks.
LCARS color scheme inspired from STO.
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Comments: 5
Would they still be using isolinear chips in the 25th century? They started bioneural gelpacks in Voyager...
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I'm quite aware of the use of bio-neural gel packs in canon, especially in relatively new vessels like the Intrepid and Sovereign-classes. Indeed, their performance has been shown to surpass that of traditional Isolinear circuitry.
However, at the end of the day they are still technically biologically-based components highly susceptible infection by bacterial and viral vectors, and thus they are very difficult to maintain at optimal condition. Additionally, replacement gel packs cannot be fabricated using standard replicators. As such, I would imagine that even by the 25th Century Starfleet would opt for a mix of both bio-neural packs and isolinear subprocessors, with the former being relegated to non-mission critical tasks (or at least having isolinear-based backups).
Also, these isolinear chips can be traded or passed around easily as portable storage devices (hence the "flash drive" mentioned in the description). Trading around big wet sacks of neurons can be quite inconvenient, innit?
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Perhaps some combination of the two? Chips with bioneural components.
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I don't see why one needs to implant bio-neural components inside isolinear chips - given the rough handling involved when using such chips, the biological bits are susceptible to irreparable damage.
In short, a ship's computer core and mission critical subsystems should be based purely on isolinear technology, as they are more robust and easily replaced. Bioneural packs are best relegated to non-critical or auxiliary roles. It's rather foolish to have a starship completely dependent on bio-neural packs.
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