Biological CPU

Biological CPU (生体CPU, Seitai CPU^?) are artificially strengthened humans developed by the Earth Alliance's secret Extended Program, which is aimed at producing pilots for its mobile suits that would fight with the same efficiency as Coordinators. This would later expand to include having fighting capabilities on par with Coordinators. There are two types of Biological CPU, the Boosted Man (ブーステッドマン, Būsuteddoman^?) and the Extendeds (エクステンデッド, Ekusutendeddo^?).

Types

Boosted Man

Boosted Men are classified as equipment as they were viewed to be similar to a computer's CPU. They had micro-implants in their brains and glands, and undergone special training as well as mental conditioning to eliminate their sense of fear and increase aggression in combat; the subjects were mostly regular Naturals pilots who were given regular doses of the performance-enhancing drug Gamma Glipheptin. This drug had a negative effect on the pilots' mental stability and caused them to behave in undesirable ways during battle. It also had very brief duration, and as the effect wore off it left the pilots incapacitated with severe withdrawal symptoms, as their nervous systems began to collapse without regular doses. Their loyalty to the Alliance was guaranteed by their addiction to Gamma Glipheptin. The known pilots produced under this category were Clotho Buer, Orga Sabnak and Shani Andras, all three were killed in battle during the closing stages of the First Alliance-PLANT War. The Boosted Men possessed strong enough combat abilities to press even very strong Coordinators such as Kira Yamato and Athrun Zala.

Extended

Extendeds were physically and psychologically altered through surgery, brainwashing, heavy mental conditioning, performance-enhancing drugs and extremely harsh combat training. They were more stable than the Boosted Men, but required regular re-conditioning, especially when their "block words" were used to force actions from them. They also required regular physical and mental "maintenance" to keep them in a high-performance state, and to erase any "undesirable" memories they might have. Sting Oakley, Stella Loussier, and Auel Neider were the known Extendeds, they proved to be somewhat weaker than the Boosted Men, evidence of this is the fact that they could not hold their own against characters in SEED mode while the latter did. However as the Extendeds do not rely on chemical stimulants for their prowess, they can last longer in the battlefield than the Boosted Men. All three Extendeds died in combat, Auel perished at the hands of Shinn Asuka's ZGMF-X56S Impulse in a naval battle near Crete. Stella died after her GFAS-X1 Destroy was attacked by Kira Yamato's ZGMF-X10A Freedom in battle over Berlin. Sting was killed by Shinn's ZGMF-X42S Destiny in the battle for Heaven's Base.

Gallery

Information on the Boosted Men according to the Never Ending Tomorrow video game's Seed Facts.

Notes & Trivia

• Due to their required intake of drugs and harsh withdrawal symptoms, fans dubbed the trio "the Druggies", which tends to be used as an affectionate nickname rather than an insult.
• Biological CPUs could be considered analogous to the Universal Century concept of Cyber Newtypes who were normal pilots enhanced to have Newtype abilities.
• In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Battle Destiny, Biological CPU and Extended are permanent one-time use abilities that can be applied to Natural Pilots to increase base stats and offset pilot type limitations for advanced MS. Aside from the stat bonuses and penalties, both abilities alter the personalities of the pilots (for example: Female Pilot 2 goes from being typically energetic to downright childish). Both are unlockable only in the EAF route:
  • Biological CPU: All base stats except Stamina +9, -20 as a side effect during critical status (MS HP at 30%).
  • Extended: All base stats except Stamina +12, -10 as a side effect during critical status (MS HP at 30%).
• Due to censorship regarding drug references in children's programming, references to the Biological CPUs taking performance enhancing drugs were edited out of the cut version that aired on Cartoon Network's Toonami.