Forum:Integrated Circuits in Fallout? Fact or Inconsistency?

Okay, so we start off all the way almost twenty years ago with Fallout (Year 2161), you need to find a Water chip for Vault 13. Now by chip we mean a large Circuit board with a vacuum processor in it and a bunch of braided wires and what not hanging around it, like the inside of a 1920's radio. This is what is referred to as a chip in Fallouts one through three, no integrated circuits or anything, with the exception of the Commonwealth's androids. There are Vacuum tube memory units for pipboys, holotapes, and even some really advanced circuit doodads in Fallout 2 (One of the more inconsistent in the fallout, good game, but inconsistent) that allow you to increase a few of your SPECIAL skills.

Now lets skip ahead to October of 2010, or in fallout October of 2281, a platinum chip is to be delivered to mister House. The platinium chip is a real totally integrated circuit. Okay so as a plot point I understand it has to be totally advanced, amazing... really. But all over the Mojave we can see Scrap electronics, a bundle of wires with a couple of circuit boards in it? Or if anyone has taken time to look at the AER14 prototype there is a Circuit board built (taped really) into its stock. What I propose is a discussion of the existence or lack there of of Integrated circuits, in the Fallout Universe. And if they exist, to what degree, who had them, when and where were they available? Aryeonos What!? 19:10, November 29, 2010 (UTC)
 * Integrated circuits were a relatively new and advanced technology developed shortly before the war, that's why they are present in the AER14 prototype or Lil' Pip 3000. No explanation for scrap electronics though - I think it's simply the texture artist's oversight. Ad for Fallout 2, remind me exactly where are the integrated circuits? If I recall correctly, memory modules for ACE are still conforming to the water chip design. http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/0/08/Personal_Sig_Image.gif Tagaziel (call!) 20:57, November 29, 2010 (UTC)
 * A close look at the scrap electronics will reveal that one of the boards is a PC motherboard, and another is a sound card. I don't recall if the third resembled anything or not. At any rate, there's no real saying that those boards, in the Fallout universe, actually have ICs on them. -- 23:00, November 29, 2010 (UTC)

I was wondering if they weren't just PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards) or if they had any identifiable circuits on them. And I wasn't saying that there were ICs in FO2, I was just stating that its been rather inconsistent with the rest of the Fallout world. I'm kind of vague on exactly what ACEs chips or cards looked like, I remember finding a couple though. Were there any other integrated Circuits though? So far we have the Platinum chip, the Lil pip, which also used Vacuum tubes (Flash drives pretty much) that always broke, and the AER 14. Who's developing this stuff though? Pipboys are Vault-tec (?), AE line laser weapons are first documented on the east coast and I don't recall who made them. Then there is Rob-Co who's been behind the standardized OS, most robots, and Mr. House's Platinum chip. Only the lil pip was commercially available, and it wasn't a success, but it was mass produced which means that the general populace had some semblance of access.

Now what about the androids? Or the supercomputers? The idea for those have been around since the twenties and thirties, Asimov's had plenty of synthetic people before, but all of his robots used vacuum tubes in his early works, so from a retro sci-fi standpoint robots are could be exempt from the need or use of ICs but there isn't really any evidence to prove otherwise. Where's that put it all at? Aryeonos What!? 10:02, November 30, 2010 (UTC)

Considering that Pres. Eden was several stories tall, it's probably safe to assume he wasn't built using integrated circuits. Then again, I don't see how a Mr. Gutsy or Mr. Handy could be of such small size and have even the appearance of a personality without the use of integrated circuitry. Especially an android. A weapons-grade laser would be bigger than Eden if it was purely constrained to the technology of the 50's. Hell, microfusion cells? Maybe peoples' understanding of the past from a post-war perspective is just completely distorted, and technology was really far beyond what it appears in the game. Analogue circuits would be a lot easier to replicate post-war. 16:59, December 1, 2010 (UTC)


 * One must recall, we're not talking about science, we're talking about SCIENCE! here. It's not necessarily constrained to 1950s/early 1960s technology, just how the folks in the 1950s/early 1960s imagined the technology of 2077. --76.16.85.195 22:57, December 1, 2010 (UTC)

Sure, I agree, but even then, they still had pretty much the right idea: Space travel, advanced nuclear technology, miniaturization. Of course they couldn't understand the particulars, but that's because the particulars didn't exist yet. The fantastic thing is that a lot of modern devices were imagined in corny 50's sci-fi and before that. So, if they were imagined through SCIENCE!, wouldn't it make sense that they would exist in the Fallout universe? That's my reasoning. Fart. 06:41, December 2, 2010 (UTC)

I'm thinking the reason why Eden was such a large computer is when his model of super computer was built, integrated circuits were new unproven technology. That's why it was built with UNIVAC style technology (and SCIENCE!). The Gutsys and Robotrons being rolled out only a few years before the fall would have had new integrated circuit computers. Same with the desktop computers you see etc. Basically in my unproven opinion, before the war, our style of modern technology (microprocessors, making things small ,etc) was starting to take root/be developed.