[TML] Does "Operation Reset" Make Sense?

[shadow at shadowgard.com]

On 30 Nov 2007 at 23:35, Richard Aiken wrote:

> Setup: I'm giving the Savage Worlds RPG to a local "needy kid" for
> Christmas.  I've printed off the free adventures Pinnacle has on line
> for this game.  I also wanted to include a photocopy of the Free City
> of Krakow adventure, written for Twilight: 2000.  But in re-reading
> the intro to this adventure (after some 22 years), I stumbled upon a
> possible problem. The default adventure plot for this product involves
> a covert operation to acquire a secret invention: a bread-boarded,
> re-configurable macroscale electronic replacement for the silicon
> microchips that were fried by all that EMP.  Everybody and his cousin
> (DIA, CIA, KGB, Shin Bet, etc, etc) is supposed to be trying to get
> their hands on the plans for this item.
> 
> Does this make sense?  I mean, from what I've picked up reading posts
> here, making one of these isn't that technically difficult.  At least,
> it isn't for anyone with the appropriate degrees in electrical
> engineering and computer science.  It just isn't done because there
> isn't any current, real-world need.

Actually replacing even *one* late 80s IC with something using non-
semiconductor parts is not a trivial undertaking. 

> So - assuming that this plot device doesn't make sense as written -
> what might I recommend that my gift-recipient use to replace it?  A
> device which can somehow "magically" resurrect EMP-fried chips? 

It'd *take* magic. The way EMP kills semiconductor based electronics 
(not just chips, but even individual transistors and diodes) is due 
to large voltages getting induced in the wiring the device is 
attached to. 

A quite modest voltage will "burn thrn" the PN junctions inside the 
part. Causing permanent damage ythat'd have to be repaired by 
shifting atoms inside the substrate.

> A
> huge stash of *unfried* pre-war chips (making the critical information
> the location of the stash)?

Not a bad idea. 

Loose parts aren't likely to get killed.

--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com