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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?
    T oday 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
    A t 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