A PADD, short for Personal Access Display Device, is a hand-held, multifunctional computer used in various guises by various races, including the Federation, Klingons, Romulans and Cardassians.
Earth Starfleet and later Federation Starfleet used PADDs starting around 2150 and continue to use them to this day for various functions. PADDs are wireless in nature and can access other PADDs, tricorders, communicators and ship's computers as needed.
The controls are touch-focused and LCARS-based, allowing the user to intuitively access data via a large screen activated and operated by touch. PADDs in the 2360s utilized boronite whisker epoxy construction, powered by sarium krellide power cells. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual)
USS Cantabrian counselor Daniel Radke preferred using PADDs to read novels instead of a book. (Star Trek: The Cantabrian Expeditions: "Isolation")
External links[]
- PADD article at Memory Alpha, the canon Star Trek wiki.