Goodbye, floppies - San Francisco pays Hitachi $212 million to remove 5.25-inch disks from its light rail service

In brief: San Francisco's Muni Metro's Automatic Train Control System (ATCS), 1 of nan fewer remaining awesome organizations still utilizing floppy disks for its operations, is dropping nan archaic exertion arsenic portion of a awesome upgrade. The proscription agency's committee has agreed to a $212 cardinal woody pinch Hitachi Rail to overhaul nan strategy and region nan 5.25-inch floppy disks it's been utilizing since 1998.

San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) was nan first agency successful nan US to adopt nan floppy-based automatic train power strategy successful 1998. It was expected to beryllium successful spot for 20 to 25 years. It entered its 26th twelvemonth of work successful 2024.

In April, SFMTA head Jeffrey Tumlin said nan expanding consequence of nan disks suffering information degradation meant that astatine immoderate constituent location will beryllium "a catastrophic failure."

Thankfully for San Franciscans who usage nan city's metro service, SFMTA's committee has approved a woody pinch Hitachi Rail, nan outer section of Japanese tech elephantine Hitachi, that will bring nan strategy into nan modern era.

SFMTA spokesperson Michael Roccaforte explained to Ars Technica successful April really nan existent ATCS strategy works. "When a train enters nan subway, its onboard machine connects to nan train power strategy to tally nan train successful automatic mode, wherever nan trains thrust themselves while nan operators supervise. When they exit nan subway, they disconnect from nan ATCS and return to manual cognition connected nan street."

The $212 cardinal statement pinch nan patient is portion of a $700 cardinal awesome overhaul. This includes replacing nan aging loop cablegram strategy utilized for sending information crossed nan servers and trains. SFMTA spokesperson Michael Roccaforte said this upgrade is much pressing than replacing nan floppies arsenic nan cables are vulnerable and person little bandwidth than an aged AOL dial-up modem.

The SFMTA plans for Hitachi to switch nan loop cables by 2028 pinch a comms strategy that uses Wi-Fi and cellular signals for search trains, assuming nan SFMTA's committee of supervisors approves it.

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Replacement of nan cables, floppies, and different aging exertion is expected to return spot successful 2027 aliases 2028, followed by an on-street exertion installation phase. The estimated completion day for nan full strategy overhaul is 2033 aliases 2034.

Floppy disks, usually of nan 3.5-inch variety, person refused to dice contempt Sony making nan past caller 1 successful 2011. Japan only removed them from each authorities operations successful June, and they're still utilized successful immoderate businesses and by enthusiasts.