Trodes are worn around the head, and they interface with the brain to provide simsense data. Simrigs are able to record the data, presumably for simsense and BTL's experiences.

A Sim Module is required for either of these to function. It is the "ASIST interface that controls the simsense experience." My question is what exactly *is* a sim module? Is it a software operating system for the trodenet? Is it a datachip plugged in your commlink? Or is it a cube of hardware in your left pocket? What exactly is it?

I realize that the module itself can be hacked up to become a Hot Sim, but it just seems strange to me that you need two pieces of separately purchased equipment to access VR (from terms of simplicity's sake). Anyway, if you get a Sim Module implanted, would you still need to get an implanted Sim Rig or is it assumed the Sim Module can interface indepedently with your brain?

The sim module is what the previous edition called an ASIST converter, which was a piece of hardware that was assumed to come with cyberdecks, simsense players, vehicle rigger adaptation, high end pocket secretaries, and pretty much anything that could pump simsense into your brain. It's what's needed to convert a simsense data stream into something the brain can understand.

As for the size of it, since you can get BTL chips that you can slot directly into a datajack without the need for any other hardware, a sim module would have to be small enough to fit onboard a BTL chip. If it were software, I belive the book would have specifed it as such, since there's the possibility for a hacker to copy software. I imagine it'd be a very small hardware chip.

However, once you have the simsense signal converted into something the brain can understand, you sill need to get that signal into the brain. You can use trodes, or a datajack. There's also the external simrig, which is nothing more than an elaborate set of trodes that can record simsense as well as play it back, and also come equipped with a sim module built in (p.228). Implanted commlinks and simrigs also come with their own built in sim modules, and are already connected to the brain.