San Francisco Government Begins to Replace Floppy Disk Systems on Their Rail Transit



Previously we reported that governments such as Japan and Germany will start investing money to replace their outdated computer systems that still use floppy disks as a means of storage and update the systems with more modern technology.


Now it's the turn of the San Francisco government to update their local transportation system with an investment of $700 million (~RM3 billion) which will apparently be used in two parts.


First is an investment of $212 million that has already been signed through an agreement with Hitachi Rail to upgrade their rail system. The plan is to replace the system that uses a 5.25 inch floppy disk until today with a more modern system and use a hard disk or SSD instead.



In the meantime, as much as $488 million will be spent to replace other components of the cable system that was used before to send data from the server machine to the trains. It is also reported that the cable system used is slower than the 56K internet connection used in the 90s.


Other parts that are likely to be replaced include the computer system that controls the movement and braking components of these trains. This improvement is seen to be still going through the process of confirmation by the San Francisco government and will be confirmed later.


Previously, it was reported that the government had started the upgrade process in 2018, and it should be completed in 2028. However, now, it seems that the completion time of this upgrade is expected to be around 2033 to 2034.


With this, it seems that more and more countries have stopped using legacy technologies such as floppy disks by switching to more modern systems.

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