Corrected entry: Skynet supposedly survives Judgment Day because it spread itself to computers all over the world. In a full nuclear exchange between USA and Russia, at least 20,000 warheads (on the Megaton scale) would detonate at various locations throughout the world within the hour, and the 20,000 EMPs generated would without doubt destroy almost every above-ground computer in the entire world. EMPs have larger blast radii than the nuclear explosion itself; ten could wipe out the entire electrical grid of the US. Only a few military computers at the bottom of deep bunkers would survive, but Skynet didn't rely on any "supercomputers", right?.
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Correction: It didn't rely on supercomputers, but it could make use of them. Anyway, there are many EMP-hardened civilian computers in things like power stations, air traffic control, and secure data-storage units. And surely a few normal computers would survive, especially in remote places like the Falkland Islands. Remember, the internet was originally designed to withstand a nuclear war, thus preserving vital communications.
J I Cohen