The Story Behind Cybenetics: Past, Present & Future

The Start of Cybenetics

Somewhere in 2016, I was so full of issues that I found in the 80 PLUS methodology that I emailed them and offered to help improve it. People trusted 80 PLUS certification levels, but the truth was that its methodology wasn’t good enough to “catch” the serious issues that I usually found in my reviews. So, I thought that I could lend them some parts of my methodology to improve it. I remember I got pissed when 80 PLUS didn’t even bother to reply to me, although I used my Tom’s Hardware PSU reviewer capacity, which supposedly meant a lot back then. At first, I wrote an article about 80 PLU deficiencies. Then, I decided to start my certification program, although I knew this would be tough, and many of my colleagues told me I would fail eventually. But this got me even more focused on my goal.

In the Tom’s Hardware article that they posted in January 2017 (I had it delivered more than a month ago, before its release date), I mentioned the following:

The major downsides of the 80 PLUS program can be broken down into the following:

• • Small number of measurements in order to classify a PSU into one of its categories.
  • The methodology allows for manufacturers to submit golden samples.
  • Very low ambient temperature at which the measurements are conducted.
  • It doesn’t measure the standby power consumption (vampire power), which is essential to the European market, where all PSUs should comply with the ErP Lot 6 and ErP Lot 3 directives.
  • It doesn’t take into account the 5VSB rail’s efficiency.
  • There is no clear mention of testing equipment. Moreover, the certification reports don’t follow any ISO standard, which is the de facto when it comes to certification reports.
  • 80 PLUS doesn’t effectively deal with fake efficiency badges.
  • No noise testing scheme.

I soon found more issues, about 80 PLUS, which are even worse than the ones listed in my original article.

After 80 PLUS ignored my email about how I could help them improve their deficient methodology, I had only one way to proceed: create my own standard and a new company that would embrace it. This company was Cybenetics. I spent lots of time finding a suitable name, but I think I nailed that in the end!