Comps

Comps (cellphones)

All modern cell phones are equipped with VIs or Virtual Intelligences, and serve as personal computers as well as communication devices. As such modern phones are commonly referred to as Comps, or Comms. Comps are used buy virtually everyone, not least of all shadowrunners.

Features of the modern Comp

Resident VI

The most prominent feature of the modern Comp is it's Resident Virtual Intelligence, or VI. Virtual intelligences are capable of independent action and decision making, if not the intuition, improvisation, and discernment of people or of fabled “true” AIs. The VI in a Comp serves as a secretary, IT department, and help desk in your pocket. The rating of this VI largely determines the price of the phone.

Cheaper models such as the Aztechnology Uno, are available for as little as ¥500 or less, but these Comps contain Rating 1 VIs that offer few advantages over just operating the phone manually. A rating 1 resident VI has 1 intelligence, 1 active skill, and 1 knowledge skill, each at level 1, so not much to work with. These Comps offer only minimal competence in areas related to being a phone, and are no better than animals for tasks which require decision making. Told to take dictation, such VIs are likely to make mistakes frequently and trip over homophones, words run together, or accents. Of course they can still do voice recording, but an automatically generated transcript may look messy. If you're out at a park with friends and tell such a phone simply to “Order us Pizza”, the cheap comp is likely to have trouble parsing who at the park you are or are not with, toppings etc. A likely user might end up with a few pizzas from either the closest place or last one called, configured however that parlor's special is. An especially unlucky user could end up with any arbitrary configuration of pizzas and toppings billed to his cred-stick. Cheap Comps require far more manual babysitting and offer few features beyond being light on the pocketbook.

Higher-end comps such as the Arcadia KiTN X3, a popular model with the college crowd, start at about ¥1500, but offer far more features. Such Comps have rating 3 VIs which feature 3 intelligence along with at least 3 active skills, 3 knowledge skills and a far higher degree of competency. They're at least as good as the average professional for tasks directly related to their parameters and about as good as an unskilled average person on other tasks. Such a comp could easily take dictation despite the speaker's thick accent or fast speech, taking advantage of context and memory to make a clear transcript. It could easily reasonably determine who was in its user's party at a park, recall favorite pizza places and toppings of multiple people present, and order intelligently.

Interface

All comps have voice and visual interfaces, as well as the ability to provide simsense (through an old-fashioned datajack or a trode ring, although modern trode rings have no disadvantage). Any comp may come with a touch screen, and or keyboard. Comps of rating 2 or higher have projectors capable of 2D displays for virtual monitors or keyboards (tracked by camera). Comps of rating 3 or higher also have holographic projectors for displaying 3D models or control surfaces, as well as electrostatic field generators capable of providing the gentle sensation of touch, and of more accurately receiving user input.

Security

Comps, and VIs in general, are extremely secure, most recognizing their proper owners through a combination of voice-print, facial, and retinal recognition, as well as commonly being equipped with passwords, pass-phrases, and/or even pass-gestures such as winking. A comp in the possession of an unauthorized user will switch to a neutral display, and attempt to establish authorization, with more intelligent models behaving more dynamically. The comp may raise an audible alarm, or, as all VIs have always-on matrix and GPS connections, it is likely to phone home and begin broadcasting its coordinates. Stealing a comp is quite risky business and rarely done.

Breaking through the security on a comp can be tough depending on the tools at hand. An Engineer or other VI may be equipped with Hacking powers, which can make short work of the job. A user with only the computer skill and their own comp has a tougher time of it. The intruder (either a human or another VI) will likely want to stop the comp's transmissions and audible alarms; this requires a computers test opposed by the comp's own computers skill, with net successes equal to the device's rating being needed to shut down the comp. The intruder may then want to access files, or attempt to scrub the VI.

Accessing files requires breaking through the device's encryption, which requires a computers test against a target number of 2x the comp's rating, and takes a number of hours equal to the square of the device's rating, extra successes can be applied to shorten this time.
Due to internal mechanical fail-safes, it is not possible to physically open a locked or deactivated comp without destroying the device.

Scrubbing a VI is a laborious process which cleans all data including user data from the device, leaving only the firmware intact and making the device ready to accept a new owner. VIs are remarkably complex and redundant in their meta-system structure. Due to its difficulty it is seldom attempted on any VI more sophisticated than a basic comp. The Scrubbing attempt takes a number of hours equal to the cube of the device's rating, after which the scrubbing party makes a computers test vs a TN of 2x the device's rating, and a threshold of half the device's rating, failure to meet this threshold means the attempt must be either retried or abandoned.

Uses

Comps are the primary means of communication in much of modern society, just slightly ahead of speaking in person.

Comps can link to other systems in much the same manner that an Engineer can, boosting their attributes, defending them, and giving them access to some of the Comp's skills. A system can accept connections from as many as 2 sources at once, one Resident VI, and one Engineer.

Comps allow their users to perform computing tasks anywhere, and can also perform them on their own.

Comps have skills and knowledge that their users may find valuable.

Comps are how Johnsons and Runners access the Laplace System.