Skynet was the world's first Automated Defense Network, processing information at 90 teraflops per second. It is the controlling force behind all of the battle units. It pools data from battle units, develops tactics and coordinates attacks. Skynet has control over everything which contains a Cyberdyne Systems CPU. Using the blueprints, designs and test models built by Cyberdyne Systems, Skynet has been able to manufacture battle units in its vast automated factories, occasionally updating them or producing more advanced models. Skynet was originally built by Cyberdyne Systems Corporation for SAC-NORAD (Strategic Air Command - NORth American Air Defense). The SAC-NORAD base is Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, the world's most heavily armored and defended mountain. Hollowed out, reinforced and armored, Cheyenne Mountain is capable of withstanding a direct hit from a nuclear missile. This made it the perfect installation at which to build Skynet's mainframe. At some point during the war, after Skynet had launched its missiles, Skynet had the mountain around it destroyed, leaving a cold, gleaming structure as a display of the supremacy of the machines. Heavily armored and fortified, Skynet's Central Core Installation at Cheyenne Mountain was guarded around the clock by squads of T-800s and patrols of Aerial Hunter Killers and Hunter Killer Tanks, and was defended from large scale rebel assaults by massive Phased Plasma Cannons. Skynet's Central Core was located deep underground within Skynet's main complex. From intercepted surveillance of video data feed, the Resistance was able to hypothesize that this Central Core was a form of cold fusion reactor, needed to supply Skynet with its tremendous energy requirements. This Central Core is the key to Skynet's ability to operate; without it Skynet would be rendered virtually disabled. It has therefore become the main target for the most skilled Resistance strike teams. The Central Core is, however, protected by the T-1000000, and thus there has, as of yet, been no successful strikes against it. However, due to the advanced complex design and limited self-awareness and Skynet's fear of the T-1000000 becoming independent of its creator, there is no verifiable evidence that the T-1000000 ever came into existence prior to its sending back the terminators to eliminate John Connor and its destruction at the hands of the Resistance. As well as the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, Skynet has another major installation 2000 feet beneath Navajo Mountain near the Continental Divide west of the Colorado Springs. This is a center for machine activity and Skynet control, and as such has also been a target of many Resistance attacks. In the comic series The Terminator: Tempest Skynet's master control has been destroyed by 2029. The Resistance believed this would cause the entire defense network to collapse into chaos without a leader. However Skynets's many network complexes continued to fight the war as they did not need a leader to function and thus couldn't surrender.
Terminator 1 and 2~Miles Bennett Dyson, director of Special Projects at Cyberdyne Systems Corporation, created a revolutionary type of microprocessor in 1994. Within three years Cyberdyne Systems became the largest supplier of military computer systems. All Stealth Bombers were upgraded with Cyberdyne Systems computers, becoming fully unmanned. Afterward, the Stealth Bombers flew with perfect operational records, and eventually the Skynet Funding Bill was passed. The system originally went online on August 4th 1997. Human decisions were removed from strategic defense. Skynet began to learn at a geometric rate. It originally became self-aware on August 29th 1997 2:14 am Eastern Time. In the ensuing panic and attempts to shut Skynet down, Skynet retaliated by firing American nuclear missiles at their target sites in Russia. Russia returned fire and three billion human lives ended in the nuclear holocaust. This was what has come to be known as "Judgment Day". However, the Resistance was able to prevent Judgment Day by sending a protector for John Connor back through time, upsetting the flow of future events.
Terminator 3: Rise of the MachinesUnfortunately the Resistance did not stop Judgment Day though; it was merely delayed. After the attack on Cyberdyne Systems by the Connors, and the death of Miles Dyson, Cyberdyne was taken over by the US Government, and renamed Cyber Research Systems (CRS) in an attempt to keep its developments secret and prevent further terrorist attacks.
Under the guidance of General Robert Brewster, the new corporation Cyber Research Systems continued the work of the late Miles Dyson using the backup files that were stored off site. Skynet was completed as before. It would be some time before the Skynet mainframe was connected to the worldwide military communications network that it would control. During this time, Skynet was connected to the worldwide civilian sector network, and began learning geometrically, quickly becoming self aware. Identifying humans as a threat to its existence, Skynet developed a super computer virus which it used to spread itself throughout civilian communications and across the Internet and take control.
Air traffic control, power plants, communications and computers were affected first, then Skynet used the super virus to take out military satellites, early warning systems, guidance computers, missile silos, submarines. The virus proved hard to destroy, as it had no one central point which it was reliant upon. The virus kept growing and changing, with a mind of its own, and the decision was made to bring the Skynet mainframe online to seek out and destroy the virus and bring military, and civilian, systems back under control. Skynet went online on July 25th 2004 at 5:18 pm Eastern Time.
Upon connection to the secure military network, Skynet spread itself further, locking out human operated systems, and quickly took control of every weapon system that it came into contact with. Only then did its creators realize that the Virus was Skynet. Exactly one hour later, at 6:18 PM, Skynet launched the American nuclear missiles at their target sites across the world. The ensuing nuclear holocaust wiped out 3 billion human lives in what was to be known as "Judgment Day"
Different incarnations of Skynet throughout the various timelines ~In The Terminator Skynet is a artificial intelligence created by Cyberdyne Systems. It started to learn and thinks that mankind is its enemy. The war begins and Skynet's forces and John Connor's Tech-Com forces come into existence. Eventually, the Resistance managed to break through its defense grid. Because eliminating Connor then to shatter the Resistance then wouldn't have made a difference, Skynet decided there was another way to win: by eliminating Connor in the past. It manages to research time travel and send a Terminator to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor before she could give birth to John. However, John sent Kyle Reese to protect her. According to Reese, had Skynet not transported the terminator through time at the last minute, it would've died and the resistance would've won. In the original script, Kyle Reese refers to Skynet as a "modified Series 4800".
In Terminator 2: Judgment Day the origin of Skynet is revealed in greater depth. It owed its origin to a microprocessor created by Miles Dyson, an employee at Cyberdyne Systems, a neural net processor that learns and adapts like a human. Soon, Cyberdyne becomes the leading supplier of computer systems to the US military. Upon its creation, Skynet began to learn at a geometric rate. It became self-aware on August 29, 1997. Skynet's creators then tried to deactivate it. In response, Skynet launched nuclear missiles at key targets in Russia to start the war. Skynet's creation is revealed to have resulted from a temporal paradox: the CPU and arm from the first Terminator were recovered by Cyberdyne and used as templates for the construction of a new microprocessor. John, Sarah, and the Terminator succeed in destroying the Cyberdyne building and all research connected with the processor to prevent Skynet's creation. Skynet sends the T-1000 to kill John Connor.
In Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines the destruction of Cyberdyne building hasn't stopped the creation of Skynet. After the destruction of the building, the military took the research hoping they could use it for defense. Skynet was created as a United States Air Force project to protect computers from virus attacks. When a virus infected the defense computers, the Air Force activated Skynet, not realizing it became sentient and was the one who had created the virus. It takes control of the robots and the machines to kill the people at CRS but John and Kate survived. Skynet launches nuclear missiles across the globe, starting Judgment Day. Skynet sends the T-X with the main target to kill John Connor, but as John has lived off the grid since 1995 the next priority isto kill the future officers of the resistance, including Kate Brewster. This incarnation of Skynet however appears to be more violent then the Skynet/Skynets outlined in Terminator and T2, launching an unprovoked/pre-emptive attack on the human race rather then launching its attack as an act of self defence.
T2 3-D: Battle Across Time In the post-apocalyptic future, Skynet has a system core. It uses the T-1000000 to protect it. The T-1000000 was defeated and the Terminator destroyed Skynet.
According to a viral advertisement in the form of a website to promote Terminator Salvation, Skynet starts off as/is a result of a company named Skynet Research, whose business appears to be creating robotics for rescue, military, construction, and transport use. Robots are also integrated into the workplace. Visitors of the site can sign up for a mailin