The Cyberdyne Systems Corporation is a fictional company depicted in The Terminator films, as well as various novels and comic books all taking place in the Terminator universe.

Timeline

As depicted in the films The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Cyberdyne is initially a benign manufacturing corporation in Sunnyvale, California. Its products are unknown, but from the equipment in its factory and its high tech-sounding name, it seems possible that Cyberdyne might have been some sort of smaller, parts producer for larger manufactures of high tech equipment. After a T-800 series Terminator, Cyberdyne Systems Model 101— a cyborg from the future, designed to kill humans — is crushed in one of the company's hydraulic presses, the company secretly begins manufacturing technological devices based on reverse engineering the Terminator's remains. Cyberdyne reverse-engineers the recovered CPU from the destroyed cyborg and creates a powerful new microprocessor for weapons systems, becoming a major contractor for the US military.

In the Terminator universe's original timeline, an undisclosed series of events leads to Cyberdyne's development of Skynet, a network of supercomputers that employ artificial intelligence in order to replace human beings as commercial and military aircraft pilots, and for the control of other military systems, including nuclear missiles. The system went online on August 4, 1997. On August 29, 1997 ("Judgment Day"), Skynet became self-aware. In a panic, they tried to pull the plug, and Skynet retaliated by launching a nuclear attack against Russia, knowing that the Russian counterattack would eliminate its enemies in the U.S, initiating an indeterminately long period of global warfare. The battle pitted humans against machines, which developed ever-increasing capabilities.

In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, in an effort to prevent Judgment Day from occurring, Cyberdyne's headquarters is destroyed by a group of saboteurs — the film's main characters: John Connor, future leader of the human resistance, his mother Sarah Connor, a second T-800 series Terminator that traveled back in time, and Miles Bennett Dyson, head of Cyberdyne special projects and developer of Skynet. However, in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, it is revealed that the timeline is only slightly altered: after the destruction of the company's headquarters, Cyberdyne Systems' patents were obtained by the U.S. Government, with another technological corporation Cyber Research Systems. Skynet continues to be developed by the company for the Strategic Air Command-North American Aerospace Defense Command, and ultimately, Judgment Day occurs, just at a later date than it would have originally.

In the original timeline, at some point after Judgment Day, Cyberdyne Systems, under the control of Skynet, creates the T-600, T-800 and T-1000 series of Terminators. In the modified timeline, prior to Judgment Day, humans at Cyber Research Systems create several different series of relatively primitive Terminators to replace U.S. soldiers in field combat. At some point after Judgment Day, Skynet-controlled machines create several more advanced series of Terminators, including the T-800 (although its models would not include the Cyberdyne Systems Model 101, since Cyberdyne Systems was destroyed), the T-850 (which is described in the third film as a T-800 upgrade) and the T-X, also known as the Terminatrix.

Universal Studios Orlando and Universal Studios Hollywood have full size Cyberdyne Corporation lobbies for their ride T2 3-D: Battle Across Time where visitors are treated to a PR film by Cyberdyne extolling the virtues of the Skynet system and Cyberdyne's other "security" oriented innovations and are often harassed by an impatient company hostess.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Andrew Goode, a young intern of the company, worked as an assistant to Dr. Miles Bennett Dyson. He recently developed an advance artificial chess playing prototype, The Turk. It is not clear of whether Skynet would be built under The Turk program.

A T-1001 model, posing as Catherine Weaver, the CEO of the company ZeiraCorp, the cutting edge, high-tech company. It currently possesses Andy Goode's AI prototype, targeting its fellow cyborgs, and planning to continue Cyberdyne's project with the company's resources under the title "Babylon." The T-1001 recently hired former FBI agent James Ellison, who has a desire to stop Skynet and its machines but is unaware that Weaver is one of them, to search for any possible Skynet technologies for the company.

References from other Films

• In the movie Aliens, when the Marines and Ripley are eating breakfast, Ripley discovers that one of them, Bishop, (who is played by an actor who had a significant role in the original Terminator film), is actually an android. This angers Ripley since an android named Ash tried to kill her in Alien. Bishop questions why that would happen and is told by Burke that Ash was one of the older models created by Hyperdyne Systems, which is a nod to Terminator's Cyberdyne Systems. Aliens' director, James Cameron, also directed Terminator and Terminator 2.

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