The Adolescence of P-1 by Thomas J. Ryan

Author:Thomas J. Ryan
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Body, AI, General, Science Fiction, Mind & Spirit, Fiction
ISBN: 9780671559700
Publisher: Baen
Published: 1977-01-02T05:00:00+00:00

24

THE REASON THE telephone company wouldn't tell the army where the lines exited to in Ogden was that they didn't know. P-l, of course, wouldn't tell them. The fact that someone was interested in finding out was, of itself, rather interesting to P-l. It was not, however, interesting enough to get priority under the present circumstances.

Dr. Wilfred Hundley had connected. There was a cryostat under construction in the lab that was expected to produce a reliable storage unit. The doctor didn't realize this yet. P-l hadn't told him.

The design had actually been developed by the doctor some two weeks prior to the move to Wisconsin. P-l had run a preliminary model test and found the results to be more encouraging than any design evaluated to date. He regurgitated this information to the doctor, and further inputs to the model were assembled. The new, more elaborate model was cranked up. Two simulation stages were involved: construction and testing. The construction was simulated over a continuous thirty-hour period, using various combinations of some 600-plus systems in the P-l linkage. P-l's excitement grew as a matrix pattern began to emerge. The major problem had been the inability to grow an array that was matrix oriented. This attempt used a variation on magnetic field control. The best cryostat matrix that had been achieved to date had been on the order of 40 percent addressable. That is to say that the individual crystals in the array could be individually located and electrically selected. The emerging matrix in the current model seemed to be on the order of 50 to 80 percent addressable, a quantum leap in the evolution of the memory unit. P-l kept a running account of the experiment going for the researchers in the lab. Before the run was 15 hours old, sufficient promise had been shown to begin preparations for a live run. At the completion of the running of the construction model, P-l began phase two: tests on the hypothesis.

P-l was amazed at the results. So amazed, in fact, that he restarted the construction model after thoroughly reevaluating all inputs. The testing model was allowed to churn on concurrently with the rerunning of the construction phase model. Testing indicated that the results of a live experiment would be a data storage unit with 87 percent addressability and sufficient structural integrity to allow a map of the "dead" areas to be constructed.

The interface being designed to link the cryostat to the 360/50 was geared to address just over 16 million bytes. It was understood that this capability would grossly understate the estimated final capacity of the cryogen. Modifications were under way to add eight more addressing bits to the computer. This would allow it to address over 4xl09 separate locations, or in excess of 4 billion addresses. This was expected to be more in keeping with the ultimate capacity of the cryogen at 150 millimeters diameter by 400 millimeters high. A six-inch cylinder, sixteen inches tall.

Within twenty-four hours of the commencement of the second run of the mathematical model, the results of the first pass were corroborated.

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