"San Francisco to Pay $212 Million to End Reliance on 5.25-Inch Floppy Disks"
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) board has recently agreed to spend $212 million to get its Muni Metro light rail off floppy disks. The Muni Metro's Automatic Train Control System (ATCS) has required 5ΒΌ-inch floppy disks since 1998. The system uses three floppy disks for loading DOS software that controls the system's central servers. The SFMTA approved a contract with Hitachi Rail to implement a new train control system that doesn't use floppy disks. Hitachi Rail tech is said to power train systems, including Japan's bullet train, in more than 50 countries. The $212 million contract includes support services from Hitachi for "20 to 25 years." The new control system is supposed to be five generations ahead of what Muni is using now. It was noted that the current system still works fine, but the risk of floppy disk data degradation and challenges in maintaining expertise in 1990s programming languages have further encouraged the SFMTA to seek upgrades.
Ars Technica reports: "San Francisco to Pay $212 Million to End Reliance on 5.25-Inch Floppy Disks"