9mo ago

San Francisco to pay $212 million to end reliance on 5.25-inch floppy disks

Muni Metro also plans to ditch super-slow loop cable communication system.

9mo ago

San Francisco to pay $212 million to end reliance on 5.25-inch floppy disks

9mo ago

San Francisco to pay $212 million to end reliance on 5.25-inch floppy disks

8 comments

5.25" disks seem like they would’ve been outdated when they were installed in 1998, although I suppose the system design probably started much earlier.
Looped cable networks? Like Netware token-ring networks? Wow… I haven’t seen one of those and almost 30 years. Even then, it was obsolete, because ethernet TCP/IP networking had become much more popular.
People are still using floppies?
- Yup. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/07/german-navy-still-uses-8-inch-floppy-disks-working-on-emulating-a-replacement/
- AFAIK there are long term science programs that are using archaic computer systems so probably yes.
  
  I'd like to read about those. Can you link some?
- It took until 2019 for the US to give up the 8” floppies that ran its nuclear launch systems.
  A 60 Minutes tour of the US nuclear control center in 2014 gave the public a glimpse behind the curtain of how the defense sector works. It also revealed that in the event that the US president ordered the launch of a nuclear warhead, the command would rely on 8-inch floppy disks and a 1970s era IBM Series/1 mainframe computer.
  Rossi told C4isrnet that though the overall computer system is old, its age provides security.
  "You can't hack something that doesn't have an IP address. It's a very unique system -- it is old and it is very good," Rossi told the publication.
  https://www.cnet.com/science/us-military-retires-floppy-disks-used-by-nuclear-weapons-system/

8 comments