Deyo chips/secret

The Deyo chip project was conceived and sold to the Emperor as a way to create an unforgeable transponder. In 1086 the researchers thought they had reached their goal with the development of the SDG-313F chip. It was made mandatory for Imperial ships in 1088 and over the course of 12 years retrofitted into all existing vessels. But long before that human ingenuity had managed to circumvent the supposedly unforgeable transponder. For the most part genuine transponders were stolen and programmed with false information (the military version of the transponder, specifically designed to be able to put out false IDs, was especially popular, but also, of course, much harder to come by) but other methods were also used. The most resourceful rival interstellar states even managed to duplicate the chips and create their own versions. The rarest, but also most efficient, method was for a psi adept with computer empathy to "seduce" the chip into broadcasting false information even though the chip "knew" it was false. Fortunately computer empathy is an extremely rare talent.

Despite all this, the Imperium stuck to the Deyo transponder. The reason was simple: Even though the transponder was not completely safe, it was vastly safer than the one it replaced (For this reason the technology was also adapted and used by other interstellar states). The fact that admitting the truth would cause an enormous loss of face to some very powerful Navy people may also have played a part; certainly the Imperial authorities never admitted officially that their transponders were not 100% safe.

Unofficially the number of transgressions mounted as powerful corporations decided that they did not want their commercial rivals to know everything they did and began using "alternate" transponders in steadily increasing numbers. By 1107 the practice was so widespread that while private individuals would still get into very serious trouble if caught using them, interstellar companies could use them with relative impunity as long as they were discrete about it and didn't break too many other laws in the process.

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Survival Margin
• Hans Rancke-Madsen