Each individual Datajack is still only a single connection to your one and only brain. Please forgive me for any smugness or pedantry that might become evident in the post to follow. My reasoning chain follows:
1)
PANS AND WANS
If you want extra protection for some of your devices, you can slave them to your commlink or deck. Your commlink (or deck) can handle up to (Device Rating x 3) slaved devices, becoming the master device in that particular relationship. The group consisting of your slaved devices plus your master commlink or deck is called a personal area network, or PAN.
So, therefore Commlinks or Cyberdecks are
Required to form a PAN and possibly attain connectivity to benefit form Wireless Bonuses.
2)
WIRELESS BONUSES
Because nearly every piece of gear and ’ware is wireless capable, it means nearly every piece of gear and cyberware benefits dramatically from being “meshed” into your wireless personal area network and the Matrix as a whole. When an item has additional functionality when connected to the Matrix, it’s described under the “Wireless” entry in the item’s description. This functionality only applies when the device has access to the Matrix, which is most of the time unless your gamemaster says otherwise, like if you’ve entered a wireless static zone. If there is a Noise Rating from a situation that is greater than the item’s Device Rating, not including distance, the item temporarily loses its wireless functionality (see Noise, p. 230).
These benefits only apply when the item’s wireless mode is on. Your Ares Alpha can’t auto-adjust for the wind direction and speed if it can’t download local upto-the-second weather conditions, and your Eurocar Westwind 3000 doesn’t know the status of the next three traffic lights if it’s not connected to GridGuide. A wireless device is always vulnerable to subversion and control by a hacker within wireless handshake range. You can defend your gear with a good commlink and a personal area network (see PANs and WANs, p. 233). Even better, defending against threats from the Matrix is part of your team hacker’s job. If she’s not available, you might occasionally want to turn wireless off.
Consequently, while everything can send data out to HOSTS for data analysis to optimise situational performance, not
Every device has processing power/Device Rating to handle the data transfer to the Matrix.
IF it is connected to the Matrix via a PAN.
3)
Commlink and
Cyberdeck charts on page 439 of SR5.
We see clearly, and explicitly, that Commlinks and Cyberdecks have Device Ratings and thus processing Power.
4)
Datajack: A datajack gives you a direct neural interface (p. 222), which can be handy in a lot of situations. It also comes with a retractable spool of micro-cable (about a meter long) that lets you directly interface with any electronic device via a universal access cable. Datajacks are equipped with their own cache of storage memory for downloading or saving files. Two datajack users can string a fiberoptic cable between themselves to conduct a private mental communication immune to radio interception or eavesdropping.
Wireless: The datajack gives you Rating 1 noise reduction.
A Datajack can only interface with
A (singular) electronic Device.
5)
Headware chart on page 453 of SR5.
Datajacks definitely have
NO Device Rating or it would be listed in the table.
Now we pair up SR terminology with some RL terminology that mot tech-heads understand to contextualize their functions. Interface (input and output hardware)/DNI, Router (center point for a small-scale network)/PAN, Processor/Device Rating, and Connectivity (benefits gained for communicating between hardware)/Wireless Bonus. So Datajacks and their forefather the electrode serve a the user's Interface, while the Commlink and their big brother the Cyberdeck serve as the PAN's Router, and the Wireless Bonus is the benefits gained from connectivity with the Matrix.
A Datajack is
NOT a PAN in and of itself, it has no Device Rating and no processing power only neural connection and optical memory storage. Only Commlinks and Cyberdecks have Device Ratings and processing power in the chain of hardware.
BUT, if they are connected to the Matrix via being meshed into a PAN they can send their current data transfer requirements to the manufacturers HOST and receive back optimization protocols which allow your connection to be more resistant to random
RF interference/Noise.So'ka?