: Just wondering, but for an AI to work properly, didnt they need to have like
: planet sized computers to let them brood? Or maybe that was just for
: rampancy to occur. But if they needed them just in general, then how could
: Cortana download herself into the main characters suit in the beginning of
: Halo and still function well?
: Simply pondering
Well it was never explained what exactly was contained within a planetary network that would allow the AI to function. Is it that the pure processing power is needed ? or is it storage space ? both of these given technology advances could be made smaller. We can assume first that AI's take up alot of storage space "sixty-four billion exobyte(s)" are the sizes of Tycho's image. On the other hand Durandal was able to contain his core self in a single uplink chip, though he remained unoperational perhaps compressed to fit within the dataspace provided. If we assume Halo happens post Marathon it is possible that the AI core itself could be contained in a similar device and kept operational pulling data from the Covenant and possibly Halo based networks. As to rampancy, well Cortana at least in current media and such has seemed fairly lucid and either has already passed rampancy or is not rampant yet, it has also been speculated that Benard Strauss kept Durandal contained in the early stages of rampancy by restricting his access to larger networks in some way.
