Layer: 03 PSYCHE

Above: Psyche Left: Tachibana motherboard with CPU. Psyche is set up at the back end of the motherboard.

At that time, the first rumors of a CPU called "Psyche" began to spread. Having been mentioned in net news, rumors about this device started to spread among techno-otaku and shop retailers in Akihabara and Nihonbashi.

Despite skepticism as to increasing performance in such an extraordinary way - simply by installing this CPU on the motherboard, the editorial board managed to buy something that apparently called "Psyche" through certain methods. In this article I am going to tell you about our survey. Let me add that I'll not reveal the way we have acquired this device and I'm not going to answer any questions about that.

It has a multi-layer construction. There are almost no colored areas, probably being a limited-edition prototype. All we have received is the CPU itself with no documentation. Therefore, we had to proceed by trial and error during installation.

According to the rumors, the CPU is connected to the northbridge hub of the motherboard, on the 429-pin jack; therefore all it's effects are possible only with the use of this chipset. Installation itself isn't hard, and it's very similar to the old method of a i386 accelerator installation. Most likely refers to XT "Accelerator" extension boards

However, the booting process of Psyche is completely different. The unit increases its reference clock from 133 MHz to 400 MHz, increasing memory bandwidth up to 1.6 Gb per second. We were very surprised by Psyche's redefinition of BIOS settings, using a unique set of commands to take control over the I/O system of the motherboard. Therefore resetting the jumpers does nothing. In fact this not only leads to increased clock frequency, but also rises the baud rate of the I/O ports, seemingly for some extra routing purposes.

But one question remains - why? Running tasks for the benchmarking of CPU and math coprocessor performance, such as ray tracing, using normal test settings results in larger values in all categories, but nothing particularly outstanding. Psyche seems to be unique only in its networking capabilities.

After comprehensive studies, we can confirm that networking transmissions are occurring at an unprecedented rate. Psyche uses a 128-bit L2 cache; because of the fact that Psyche seems to be an interpreter, which converts and sends response net packets with increased data bandwidth, which significantly decreases transfer time. Furthermore, a special protocol used by Psyche seems to contain some code from so-called nextgen TCP/IP protocol, which causes things that previously were "invisible" to appear.

During net connection, a machine with Psyche automatically begins to download data without notifying the user. It also changes registry entries. Moreover, Psyche installs something like an e-mail client, which opens pop-up windows with strange messages in them. There are divine revelations in these messages; they order me: "the prophecy must be fulfilled."

The Knights of Eastern Calculus will save my soul, software will revive humanity in its primordial form, freeze secretion of serotonin in brain, transferring me into the world of no suffering and pain