Personal Data Pad

The Personal Data Pad, or PDP, is a portable, handheld device used for a variety of functions.

Design

The Personal Data Pad stems from the handheld computer tablets of the late 20th to early 21st century, though began to progress faster with the spread of synthetic diamond chips. The Personal Data Pad is similar in terms of both form and function, but with far more robust and capable systems. PDPs were designed to be able to integrate with a variety of systems, both wireless, or with the use or physical connections (or simply touching the PDP to the appropriate system). In terms of size typically are about 8 to 12 inches long, and about 6 to 8 inches wide, rarely more than an inch or two in thickness (though some models are thinner and designed to fold or roll up for easy storage), though some specialized variants may be smaller or larger depending on needs and integrated systems.

Variants

Civilian Personal Data Pads

Most civilian models of PDP are flashy, and easily customized, designed for work or entertainment. Most civilian PDPs are incapable of connecting to military networks as the sheer amount of information is enough to overwhelm a civilian-level PDP.

Military Personal Data Pads

Military-issue PDPs are small, on average about six inches long, and four inches wide, and two inches deep. Military-issue PDPs are are designed to conserve battery as much as possible, so limit the CPU on things deemed non-critical, and revert to monochrome for most uses. Because of their nature, they are unable to support customized layouts to ensure that they are uniform. Additionally, personnel have very limited local space (by design) unless handling military-encrypted files, with everything being backed up to the military network when in range (to ensure military personnel can access their files from any PDP or console).

Ship Data Pads

Ship Data Pads (SDPs) are used by military and civilian craft, for mobile displays. Capable of being mounted to a variety of surfaces, SDPS are used for a variety of purposes, fro monitoring systems, to pulling up displays such as schematics during repairs.

Specialized

There are a variety of specialized data pads for purposes ranging from medical to engineering, typically with customized software or hardware as needed.