Extended Bio for future reference...

[ol_yellow_eyes]

Basic Specifications:

Data weighs 100 kilograms (about 220 lbs). This includes 24.6 kilograms of tripolymer composites, 11.8 kilograms of molybdenum-cobalt alloys, and 1.3 kilograms of bioplast sheeting. He is 5 feet, 11 inches tall. His total storage capacity is 800 quadrillion bits, and his total linear computational speed is rated at 60 trillion operations per second. (It should be noted that both of these are below human capacity—yay early 90's sci-fi! You can either pretend that they're better than they actually are, or argue that Data is a more efficient machine than a human. There are probably certain superfluous functions that his brain does not need to take care of.)

He has the strength of ten men. He thinks a lot faster, too; processes that take humans hours will often take Data only minutes. He is able to read a thick novel in seconds, just by flipping through it. And occasionally he is shown moving faster, too.

In general, Data's senses are more accurate than that of a human's, but not better. In other words, when he touches something, he can tell you its exact temperature, but he can't, say, sense someone's body heat without touching them.


Power:

Data says his power cells continuously recharge themselves. This suggests a perpetual motion machine, which of course is impossible. My theory is that he is powered by various external energy sources. Usually, he recharges by connecting directly to an energy source—most commonly, the Enterprise. But if necessary, he can absorb different types of energy directly from his environment, such as solar radiation and subspace emissions. He is also able to digest food.


Skin and Eyes:

Data describes his own skin as having pores, and it is mentioned that he is not exactly waterproof—he tried to swim once, and the result was that he sank to the bottom and had water in his servos for weeks. His skin is white with gold flecks. My theory is that these gold flecks help him absorb light to use as energy, though this would not power him completely.

Based on a line that was cut from one of the episodes, we know that Data can control the temperature of his lips. He says it is adjustable, and was keeping it at 37 degrees Celcius (98.6 F) at the time to simulate a human temperature. This probably extends to any area of his exterior, but requires a lot of power. As a result, he keeps most of his skin at its "natural" temperature, which would be slightly warmer than room temperature due to the fact that he's an active machine. His temperature is highest at his "core" (the middle of his torso, maybe centered around his heart).

I have no idea why his eyes are yellow, but they are.


Joints:

Data comes apart in several places. These places are:

-Neck
-Shoulder joints
-Just below the elbow
-Waist
-Above the knee
-Ankle



(His brother Lore, disassembled.)


Panels:

Data also has several areas at which he can be opened up, and his circuitry can be observed. Some of these panels are removable, others "flip up" naturally. These include:

-The entire top of his head, removable



-An almost circular panel at the back of his head, flips up
-On the side of his head around his ear, removable (only the right side is ever shown)



-A large panel through the middle of his abdomen, removable



-An arch-shaped panel on his right forearm, flips up





-A panel on the right side of his neck, flips down



-the fingernail of his thumb on his left hand, flips up (only Lore is ever shown with this, but we can assume Data has it also)



-The fingernail of the index finger on his left hand, flips up (also only Lore)




There are also a few non-canon ones that I would like to add:

-A square panel on his left pectoral to access his heart, removable
-A rectangular panel on his lower back to access his power cells, removable


His Insides:

In general, one should remember that Data was constructed to be as human-like as possible. He has a heart to pump liquids through his circulatory system, which "regulates micro-hydrolic power" and "creates bio-chemical lubricants" to lubricate his bio-mechanical functions. (He says that he "occasionally ingests a semi-organic nutrient suspension in a silicon-based liquid medium to lubricate his bio-functions"—we can only assume that this goes into the circulatory system.) He has a "pulse"—the heart itself probably does not beat in the normal sense, but the inside of it vibrates at a normal rate of 60 bpm. Nothing will be able to increase this rate until he receives his emotion chip.

He has a stomach, we have to assume, because he is able to ingest food. He is probably able to process and digest any substance without waste, but again, this is not his main source of energy. He also has taste buds—he can tell the composition of any substance just by tasting it. He did ingest something once that made him shut down. It was fine-ground quadratanium (also used in his construction), given to him by his brother Lore.

Canon-wise, his brain looks like a combination of fiber optics and Christmas lights (heaven knows how it works). But one should be able to detect positrons flowing across it. Because of the abundance of panels on his head, one should be able to get at all parts of his brain without removing anything. His brain controls most of his functions, and controls his movements through a complex "nervous system". His nervous system also controls his sense of touch.

Beneath the panel in his right arm is an "axial servo," which he was able to "attenuate" to produce a magnetic field that opened a magnetically sealed door.

He has two subprocessors—primary and secondary. His primary sub-processor is located in between his pectorals (beneath his collar bone), and his secondary is located beneath that (around his diaphragm). These are both relatively large, and take up a lot of the space that unnecessary organs might have occupied. They mostly control his non-cognitive functions, for example his heartbeat and maybe his sense of balance.

His lungs exist but are probably somewhat small. Data breathes to regulate his temperature—kind of like the fan on a PC.

I've decided that he has four power cells, located in his lower back. I place them there because they had to be in a place that would be somewhat protected. Also, when he was stabbed in the back, there was a huge electrical discharge and he was rendered offline. But these power cells can be repaired, of course. We'll say that they are arranged side-by-side, and are about 2" wide and 3" tall.

His skeletal system is composed of a polyalloy designed to withstand extreme stress. I imagine the actual structure is very similar to that of a human's. His skull is composed of cortenide and duranium—also very strong. However, it is unclear where his skull actually is; you can't usually see it when they open him up. It could be attached to the skin in his head, which would make it much larger than a human skull. One could argue that this was necessary, because his brain had to be larger than that of a human's. Or it could be beneath the first layer of his neural net, with the argument that there needs to be that first layer of inputs outside of his impenetrable skull.

In the movie First Contact, his skull does appear to be more visible. It is grey and appears to structure his entire face. But there are still some flashing lights on its surface that are visible.



(Apologies for poor image quality.)

Apparently, underneath his fingernails are another sort of input that can send out a signal. Lore will use it to transmit certain emotions to Data, and he also used it to beam back up to his ship.

This is what his arm looks like when it is removed:




His Off-Switch:

Data's off-switch is located in the dead center of his back (probably a few inches below where his shoulderblades are). Based on how various actors pantomimed shutting him off, it seems to be a small, rectangular recess into his skin (maybe an inch or two deep), just large enough to comfortably fit all four of someone's fingers. The actual switch seems to be a button of some sort. Presumably, when he's switched on it stays recessed somewhat, and pops all the way out when he's been switched off. I don't know what it looks like, but we'll say it's pretty obvious if you're looking at that part of his back. (Not that Data often takes off his shirt.)

Above his switch (or in his switch?) he says there are little projections that act as an "android alarm clock." They must be connected to his internal chronometer, and they control when he wakes up after being switched off. Before he shuts himself off, he can program the amount of time it will take him to wake up. Obviously he can't do this unless he is expecting it, so if someone sneaks up behind him and hits the switch, he no longer has control over it. But he won't stay asleep forever—his default is probably about 6 hours before he wakes up automatically. This is very hard to bypass, and requires a security code. The easiest way to make sure he doesn't wake up would be to simply break him in some other way so he can't function at all.

He doesn't tell anyone about his switch. As he puts it to Dr. Crusher, "If you had an off-switch, would you not keep it secret?" The only ones in canon who know about it are Dr. Crusher, Commander Riker, Dr. Soong, Lore, and maybe Commander LaForge.


Other random information:

-Data is predominantly left-handed.
-His hair does not grow unless he wants it to.
-The blinking of his eyes is governed by a Fourier series to simulate randomness.
-There is some measure of circuitry in his mouth, which can be manipulated in some way. This is probably the only input that one can get at without opening him up.



-Data does not have any sort of user interface, but can be hooked up to a computer. The most common way this is done is by attaching a cable to his brain. There is one such port on the right side of his head.
-Generally, you cannot access his systems unless he lets you; even if you connect him, he has to set up the interface.
-He has a system restore function (wiping his memory when his system gets corrupted), for which he has to reboot.
-Data has a dream program, and spends a few hours accessing it every night (in other words, he "sleeps").
-He can imitate voices to perfection.
-He can download and simulate different personalities, such as Sherlock Holmes.
-Even after he gets his emotion chip, he can't feel physical pleasure or pain.


**I will add a section about how his emotion chip affects him when he gets it.**