Quantum Cycle Upgrade

A Quantum Cycle Upgrade is an event on Cybertron in the Beast Era.

The Quantum Cycle Upgrade is a semi-regular event where the entire Transformer population (or at least those living on Cybertron) have their hardware upgraded more-or-less simultaneously.

The purpose of Quantum Cycle Upgrades is unknown, they may be analogous to receiving an annual <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_vaccine" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:Influenza_vaccine">flu shot</a> or any other <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_television_transition" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:Digital_television_transition">centralized initiative to switch to a new technology</a>.

Fiction

Beast Machines cartoon

Nightscream mentions that all Transformers were fitted with DNA scanners during a Quantum Cycle Upgrade that took place while Optimus Primal and his crew were fighting the Beast Wars. Nightscream goes on to say that they "junked all the stasis pods" in the upgrade. Survivor

Notes

• The "quantum" in the Quantum Cycle Upgrade is not a reference to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:Quantum_mechanics">quantum mechanics</a>, but rather a "quantum leap", switching from one distinct state to another with no transition period in between.

• The Great Upgrade, where the vast majority of the Autobot population took advantage of the Maximal Upgrade Program, resulting in the abandonment of cities scaled like Iacon and a watershed shift in self-identification as Maximal rather than Autobot would presumably be a rather drastic example of a Quantum Cycle Upgrade.