Oceans Thirteen | The Citadel

Cybermortis
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God of the Citadel

God of The Citadel

Posts: 4,680

Oceans Thirteen Jun 17, 2013 21:22:48 GMT

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Post by Cybermortis on Jun 17, 2013 21:22:48 GMT

In the film the gang need to take down a supercomputer that is in a very well protected room. They manage to do this using a magnetron hidden in a cell phone.

Possible?

OK, probably not given the technical/science knowledge shown in the rest of the film*. But could;

A magnetron affect a computer enough to shut it down or cause it to reboot?

Could you hide a magnetron in a cell phone without affecting its normal functions? (There is no indication that the phone could not be used as a phone).

(*They claim that the computer, called the 'Gecko', is a full fledged AI...which A; Must have come as a surprise to everyone who has and is trying and failing to make an AI. And B; begs the question as to why a world changing computer is being used to count slots in a casino...)

the light works
Demi-God

Posts: 38,742

Oceans Thirteen Jun 18, 2013 1:02:20 GMT

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Post by the light works on Jun 18, 2013 1:02:20 GMT

I am thinking probably not. considering the energy density of a modern cell phone battery, even keeping the phone on standby from a fresh charge would not provide enough power to charge a magnetron enough to deliver enough energy to disrupt the computer.

however, they have played with microwave oven innards before, so they could test it on standard computers and see what effects it had.

on a somewhat related topic, some years back I did some work in a telephone company relay station, and one of the warnings, along with "don't drop a tool behind the safety shield on that battery rack, because it is charged at 240VDC and has enough available fault current to vaporize the tool" was not to bump into the modem racks, because they were sensitive enough that just the magnetic field shift from being nudged could be enough to corrupt the data being transferred.

privatepaddy
Senior Member

Posts: 936

Oceans Thirteen Jun 21, 2013 11:08:45 GMT

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Post by privatepaddy on Jun 21, 2013 11:08:45 GMT

There are experimental sub miniature Cavity magnetron's with cathodes smaller than a coin. They require an anode voltage of 1.5kV and have an output of 140mW and a frequency of 94Ghtz. Parameters not likely to be found in the average mobile phone. Not sure of the proposed method that the microwave RF signal is supposed to interfere with the computers bus structure or if a watchdog timer is included in the uprocessor. Essentially a cavity magnetron outputs a radar signal which bounces of metal surfaces.

To boldly go where everyone else has gone before