Dektron E100

At its fundamental level, the E100 system is a vast database of words, phrases, and idioms from every known language under the Manifold Sky cross-linked to one another and interpretred through a similarly complex set of parsers for different grammatical constructions and any potential spelling errors in a source text. Humanoid translators are often more portable and cost-effective than using the E100 in day-to-day interactions, but the purpose of the E100 is to support the Commonwealth government's near-obsessive pursuit of linguistic nuance and precision across multiple languages simultaneously for the purpose of things like contracts, treaties, and legislation.

The E100 engine itself is comparatively mechanically simple, being functionally a set of search and display algorithms implemented across several large data engines and rigged up via local gasketypes and remote teleterminals to provide access to the information processed within. The real complexity of the system comes from the massive database and parsing program gasket spools that feed it; the system's heft stems from the fact that such records are physically heavy and, thus, all components are oversized and made of robust materials. The local Autonet not only conveys information to users, but also manages the massive underground warehouse where different spools are located via a system of carousels and belts, swapping out spools as needed to fulfill a given query. Linguistics researchers stationed at Register are constantly toying with one version or another of the algorithms to account for things like changes in dialects or emerging grammatical constructions, with each round of database upgrades consigning a previous set of spools to archives in case they are needed.

The assistance of the Dektron E100 system has been instrumental on work related to the potential pre-Curved Time contact between different populations and the translation of ancient languages at archaeological sites such as the Tash Ptara Complex. Social scientists have used correlational studies conducted with the help of E100 databases to probe claims relating to whether or not humanoids have any shared natural inclinations towards language, what components a language must possess to be intelligible, and ways in which culture and cross-cultural contact have influenced language over time. Experiments to turn the system into a 'lie detector' or to give it some modicum of self-communication ability have been fruitless so far, but endeavors in these directions have helped to expand the Commonwealth's knowledge of computer science in general.