Can anyone point me to the SR3 reference, if there is one, as to the size or weight or concealability of a standard portable cyberdeck?

From what I understand reading the fiction, a cyberdeck is about the size of a textbook or small laptop. Maybe about 10" across, 5 lbs.

Rigger 3, page 146. A cyberdeck requires .15 CF, or .01875 cubic meters.

(You weren't looking for a sane answer, were you?)

~J

That is sane, it's just not intuitive.

.01875 m^3 = 18750 cm^3

a cube roughly 26.5 cm on a side, or 10.4 inches on a side.

Reshape as desired, maintaining volume.

I have always played a cyber deck as being the size of a thick keyboard. Basically a keyboard with an extra 1/2 inch under for components.

I will also have more compact versions, (sometimes small enough to be compressed into a wristwatch/bracelet, but they are always less powerful versions. They at least give you a bit of protection instead of decking naked.)

Judging by the artwork and the fact that it is 80's inspired, I always imagined them to be the size of a synthesizer keyboard.

Ok. One CF is a cube .5m to a side, or 50cm to a side. That means we're going to have 50*50*50 cm^3, or 125,000 cm^3. We want 3/20ths of this, so we have 18,750cm^3. So far it matches what you said. That's going to be… yeah, your math is correct. I'm not sure where I went wrong.

Ok, so apparently a typical cyberdeck is about three-quarters of an inch thicker than an IBM Model M if we give it the same length and width. That's reasonable, maybe a little smaller than the pictures (but the Model M was pretty wide).

~J

Cyberdecks are the size of those massively heavy 1980s era laptops and twice the weight. Furthermore, any screens or monitors attached to them will, for some reason, only display green text.

I have "new" decks come out in my game every so often that are smaller than the "old" decks. If you use SOTA rules, shrink them whenever there's a boost.

I always imagined the old Commodore 64 (big fat keyboard, included RAM, processor, etc) as the model for the cyberdeck.

Now here's the real kicker:

How do you fit all that into someone's skull?

You push really hard.

~J

If Total Recall was any indication you just gotta jam it up the nose.

Here's another tricky question me and my friends came up with:

Whats the size of all the decks components?

Each BSEM attr is a opti chip which are penny sized if I remember correctly.

Storage memory is noted to fit in at least a small HUD (SR3 book) so about the size of a jumpdrive.

Cant forget the datajack port or the Matrix Interface.

Need something the size of a USB hub for all those FUP ports.

This MAYBE equates to a tea cup saucer size.


Can anyone else think of things?

Plus about 0.14 CF worth of AWESOME.

Well, a deck can be bigger than its minimal size. A cranial deck is going to be the minimal size. But an external deck can be any size you want it to be. Could be bigger, for ergonomic or style reasons.

[edit]

...the SR3 version of my then Decker Violet basically built a deck comarable to a souped up Renraku Kraftwerk in the case of a 2050's version of the Leapfrog™ notebook comp.

Well, the reason I'm asking is for a spook face type character, who has a cyberdeck of very low rating (MPCP 3 or so) with minimal components and programming, with peripheral components like an RF scanner etc attached to it. The idea being the sort of low-level hacking a thief does (for example, remote access of household components like the video pickup on a trid/telecom). Because the character concept doesn't really fit lugging around a keyboard-sized monstrosity I'm planning on sticking the components inside a Pocket Secretary casing for ease of concealment, thus the question.

You can always pay to have the concealability of an item improved. It's on page 291, BBB. IIRC, the coneal of a standard deck is 3, so you can probably get it down to something reasonable with a reasonable price increase.

as an engineer, i'd allow the compact form factor, but stick you on power. no using it for hours at a time. you'd have to plug in.

Microseconds my as...oh you mean IC? Well, AFAIK theres no time justification, IE 1 MatCombRoun=X RL seconds so who knows?

I would hope, otherwise my 80 buck digital camera uploads 2d pictures faster than 3 seconds it takes to Upload a 1mp 2d photo.

Another variation is to construct a miniature deck use the cranial deck construction rules & costs from Shadowtech or Man & Machine (I think M&M has cranial versions of standard decks already). The resulting 'deck' has all the features but would reasonably fit in a Poc-sec or PDA.

Basically, I have designed a low-end cyberdeck with some accessories in a Pocket Secretary case. It's a MPCP 3/2/2/3/2 deck with the bare minimum of programs at 2, with radio and cellular interface, an RF scanner with decryption 1, a Cellular intercept thing from SOTA2064, a transceiver 4 with encryption 1, a dataline tap for physically tapping into systems and a fairly decent whack of memory.

The idea is to have it as a standard issue type thing to intelligence people, because it's camoflaged, and because it's incredibly useful. With it an operative could hijack the cleaning drones and other cameras in a target building per SSG, surf the Matrix including the use of contact databases, intercept (decrypt) and listen in on security and police radio networks, surveil targets using cellular interception, co-ordinate surveillance devices in place and so on.

I also envisage having a camoflaged accessory which is, in effect, a broadcast Dataline Tap which one could install on a suitable point in a system granting remote access for limited tasks (stuffing with a CCTV network, for example).

It is not for combat decking or anything other than the most mundane decking tasks, but the advantage is really in having a deck in circumstances where a deck is otherwise unlikely to get into the area. It compliments my current character, who is an Infiltrator type adept.