Onboard computer

Onboard computers are computers which are internalized within a Transformer, and assist them in maintaining their structures.

Fiction

Beast Wars

Onboard computers controlled a variety of functions, including Transformation. Usually, the activation code was spoken aloud by the Transformer in question, but they could activate it internally. Beast Wars (Part 1)

Onboard computers also controlled scans, diagnostics Power Surge and initiating stasis lock. The last component could be overridden, but it was at the Transformer's own risk. Code of Hero

Predacon and Maximal onboard computers were differently voiced; the Predacons' had a feminine voice while the Maximal onboard computer was merely effeminate. Dinobot apparently swapped his out at one point, since his own internal computer spoke with the Maximal voice.

The onboard computers may have been linked in some way with the ships used by both sides--on several occasions, the computer voice is clearly coming from the ships themselves rather than as an internal mechanism, and several cases, the Maximal computer voice comes from a stasis pod. The Spark

Beast Machines

After being reformatted into technorganic bodies, the Maximals lost their onboard computers, thus forcing them to find an "emotional still point" to transform. This caused some problems, initially. Master of the House