[He cocks his head, listening to the drive and fan whirr.]

Moving parts?

Meth, it's great that the antiques are still working, but there's no way this thing can drive a realtime hologram display. What kind of bus speeds are we talking? Somewhere around a gigahertz?

[Meth may realize Fred's guess is extremely generous.

He puts the machine back on the table and heads deeper into the room, looking for something from his Earth, or something that Speicus recognizes well enough to use.]

How many transceivers you're going to need depends on the strength of the signal and the precision of location you want to be able to do. The library itself will need at least three, and I'd prefer five or more, since the triangulation will have to be precise for the locating feature to narrow it down to shelves.

[Spotting a familiar corporate logo, Fred sweeps a stack of mylar bags off a device that looks like the bottom sixth or so of a pyramid. He brandishes it at Meth.]

This is the best general-use holodisplay on the Earth market.

[At some point in Fred's world's history, Hitachi appears to have merged with a corporation called "Ihu'ayeth."]