floppy disks

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

California, floppy disks, San Francisco, Tech, trains / Rejus Almole / October 23, 2024

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) board has 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 5¼-inch floppy disks since 1998, when it was installed at San Francisco’s Market Street subway station. The system uses three floppy disks for loading DOS software that controls the system’s central servers. Michael Roccaforte, an SFMTA spokesperson, gave further details on how the light rail operates to Ars Technica in April, saying: “When a train enters the subway, its onboard computer connects to the train control system to run the train in automatic mode, where the trains drive themselves while the operators supervise. When they exit the subway, they disconnect from the ATCS and return to manual operation on the street.” After starting initial planning in 2018, the SFMTA originally expected to move to a floppy-disk-free train control system by 2028. But with COVID-19 preventing work for 18 months, the estimated completion date was delayed.

On October 15, the SFMTA moved closer to ditching floppies when its board approved a contract with Hitachi Rail for implementing a new train control system that doesn’t use floppy disks, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. 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 Chronicle said.

The new control system is supposed to be five generations ahead of what Muni is using now, Muni director Julie Kirschbaum said, per the Chronicle. Further illustrating the light rail’s dated tech, the current ATCS was designed to last 20 to 25 years, meaning its expected expiration date was in 2023. The 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.

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German Navy still uses 8-inch floppy disks, working on emulating a replacement

floppy disks, germany, Navy, Tech / Mike M. / July 12, 2024

Sailing away soon —

Four Brandenburg-class F123 warships employ floppies for data-acquisition systems.

Scharon Harding – Jul 12, 2024 7: 59 pm UTC

Enlarge / An example of an 8-inch floppy disk. It’s unclear which brand disks the German Navy uses.

Cromemco, CC BY-SA 4.0

The German Navy is working on modernizing its Brandenburg-class F123 frigates, which means ending their reliance on 8-inch floppy disks.

The F123 frigates use floppy disks for their onboard data acquisition (DAQ) systems, as noted by Tom’s Hardware on Thursday. Augen geradeaus!, a German defense and security policy blog by journalist Thomas Wiegold, notes that DAQs are important for controlling frigates, including power generation, “because the operating parameters have to be recorded,” per a Google translation. The ships themselves specialize in anti-submarine warfare and air defense.

Earlier this month, Augen geradeaus! spotted a tender for service published June 21 by Germany’s Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology, and In-Service Support (BAAINBw) to modernize the German Navy’s four F123 frigates. The ships were commissioned from October 1994 to December 1996. As noted by German IT news outlet Heise, the continued use of 8-inch floppies despite modern alternatives being available for years “has to do with the fact that established systems are considered more reliable.”

Rather than overhauling the entire DAQ, the government plans to develop and integrate an onboard emulation system to replace the floppy disks. This differs from the approach the US Air Force took. In 2019, the US military branch replaced the 8-inch floppies for storing data used for operating its intercontinental ballistic missile command, control, and communications network with SSDs.

The BAAINBw hired Saab for F123 updates. In July 2021, Saab announced winning a contract to “deliver and integrate new naval radars and fire control directors for and in the German Navy’s” F123s, with the work entailing “a new combat management system in order to completely overhaul the system currently in use on the F123, allowing a low risk integration of the new naval radars and fire control capabilities.” The Swedish company said the deal was worth about 4.6 billion SEK (about $436,748,840).

Per the BAAINBw’s tender, the replacement of the floppy disks is expected to start on October 1 and end July 31, 2025. F123 frigates are supposed to stay in service until F126s are available, which is expected to be between 2028 and 2031.

Further details, like how exactly Saab will replace the floppies, are confidential. As pointed out by Tom’s Hardware, there are various options for floppy disk emulation, such as devices from brands like Gotek that are popular among enthusiasts.

Floppies keep floppin’

For the typical person, floppy disks are obsolete, but government bodies with already established and successfully running systems in place have been much slower to abandon the old storage medium. Besides the German Navy and US Air Force, Japan only last month officially stopped using floppy disks in governmental systems. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency plans to use 5¼-inch floppies to help run San Francisco’s Muni Metro light rail system until 2030.

Various industries also continue using floppy disks to help run machines that have long been used, as Chuck E. Cheese did for animatronics as recently as 2023 and professional embroiderers do with embroidery machines.

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Japan wins 2-year “war on floppy disks,” kills regulations requiring old tech

floppy disks, Japan, Policy, Tech / Paul Patrick / July 3, 2024

Farewell, floppy —

But what about fax machines?

Scharon Harding – Jul 3, 2024 4: 53 pm UTC

About two years after the country’s digital minister publicly declared a “war on floppy discs,” Japan reportedly stopped using floppy disks in governmental systems as of June 28.

Per a Reuters report on Wednesday, Japan’s government “eliminated the use of floppy disks in all its systems.” The report notes that by mid-June, Japan’s Digital Agency (a body set up during the COVID-19 pandemic and aimed at updating government technology) had “scrapped all 1,034 regulations governing their use, except for one environmental stricture related to vehicle recycling.” That suggests that there’s up to one government use that could still turn to floppy disks, though more details weren’t available.

Digital Minister Taro Kono, the politician behind the modernization of the Japanese government’s tech, has made his distaste for floppy disks and other old office tech, like fax machines, quite public. Kono, who’s reportedly considering a second presidential run, told Reuters in a statement today:

We have won the war on floppy disks on June 28!

Although Kono only announced plans to eradicate floppy disks from the government two years ago, it’s been 20 years since floppy disks were in their prime and 53 years since they debuted. It was only in January 2024 that the Japanese government stopped requiring physical media, like floppy disks and CD-ROMs, for 1,900 types of submissions to the government, such as business filings and submission forms for citizens.

The timeline may be surprising, considering that the last company to make floppy disks, Sony, stopped doing so in 2011. As a storage medium, of course, floppies can’t compete with today’s options since most floppies max out at 1.44MB (2.88MB floppies were also available). And you’ll be hard-pressed to find a modern system that can still read the disks. There are also basic concerns around the old storage format, such as Tokyo police reportedly losing a pair of floppy disks with information on dozens of public housing applicants in 2021.

But Japan isn’t the only government body with surprisingly recent ties to the technology. For example, San Francisco’s Muni Metro light rail uses a train control system that uses software that runs off floppy disks and plans to keep doing so until 2030. The US Air Force used using 8-inch floppies until 2019.

Outside of the public sector, floppy disks remain common in numerous industries, including embroidery, cargo airlines, and CNC machines. We reported on Chuck E. Cheese using floppy disks for its animatronics as recently as January 2023.

Modernization resistance

Now that the Japanese government considers its reliance on floppy disks over, eyes are on it to see what, if any, other modernization overhauls it will make.

Despite various technological achievements, the country has a reputation for holding on to dated technology. The Institute for Management Development’s (IMD) 2023 World Digital Competitiveness Ranking listed Japan as number 32 out of 64 economies. The IMD says its rankings measure the “capacity and readiness of 64 economies to adopt and explore digital technologies as a key driver for economic transformation in business, government, and wider society.”

It may be a while before the government is ready to let go of some older technologies. For example, government officials have reportedly resisted moving to the cloud for administrative systems. Kono urged government offices to quit requiring hanko personal stamps in 2020, but per The Japan Times, movement from the seal is occurring at a “glacial pace.”

Many workplaces in Japan also opt for fax machines over emails, and 2021 plans to remove fax machines from government offices have been tossed due to resistance.

Some believe Japan’s reliance on older technology stems from the comfort and efficiencies associated with analog tech as well as governmental bureaucracy.

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Japan government accepts it’s no longer the ’90s, stops requiring floppy disks

floppy disks, Japan, Policy, Tech / Paul Patrick / January 30, 2024

“war on floppy disks” —

Government amends 34 ordinances to no longer require diskettes.

Scharon Harding – Jan 30, 2024 7: 00 pm UTC

The Japanese government is finally letting go of floppy disks and CD-ROMs. It recently announced amendments to laws requiring the use of the physical media formats for submissions to the government for things like alcohol business, mining, and aircraft regulation.

Japan’s minister for Digital Transformation, Taro Kono, announced the “war on floppy discs” in August 2022. Before the recent law changes, about 1,900 government procedures required the use of obsolete disk formats, including floppy disks, CDs, and MiniDiscs, for submissions from citizens and businesses.

Kono announced intentions to amend regulations to support online submissions and cloud data storage, changing requirements that go back several decades, as noted recently by Japanese news site SoraNews24.

On January 22, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced that it changed 34 ordinances to eradicate the requirements of floppy disks. As per a Google translation of a January 23 article from the Japanese tech website PC Watch, the ministry has deleted requirements of floppy disks and CD-ROMs for various ordinances, including some pertaining to quarrying, energy, and weapons manufacturing regulations.

METI’s announcement, as per a Google translation, highlighted the Japanese government’s “many provisions stipulating the use of specific recording media such as floppy disks regarding application and notification methods,” as well as “situations that are hindering the online implementation of procedures.”

Floppy disks first became commercially available in 1971 through IBM. They evolved through the decades, including with the release of the 3.5-inch floppy in 1983 via Sony. With usage growing and peaking in the ’80s and ’90s, the floppy disk couldn’t compete with the likes of CD-ROMs, USB thumb drives, and other more advanced forms of storage made available by the late ’90s. Sony, the last floppy disk manufacturer standing, stopped making floppies in 2011.

Floppy disks aren’t equipped for many of today’s technological needs, with storage capacity maxing at 1.44MB. Still, government bodies in Japan have been using them regularly, leading, at times, to complications. For example, in 2021, it was reported that Tokyo police lost a pair of floppy disks that had information about 38 public housing applicants.

Japan’s reliance on dated tech is something METI is tackling, but reports have noted resistance from some government bodies. This includes local governments and the Ministry of Justice resisting moving to cloud-based admin systems, per the Japan News newspaper. Japan is ranked number 32 out of 64 economies in the Institute for Management Development’s (IMD’s) 2023 World Digital Competitiveness Ranking, which the IMD says “measures the capacity and readiness of 64 economies to adopt and explore digital technologies as a key driver for economic transformation in business, government, and wider society.”

Some have attributed Japan’s sluggish movement from older technologies to its success in establishing efficiencies with analog tech. Governmental bureaucracy has also been listed as a factor.

Japan isn’t the only entity holding on to the floppy, though. Despite a single photo these days being enough to overfill a floppy disk, various industries—like embroidery, medical devices, avionics, and plastic molding—still rely on them. Even the US Air Force stopped using 8-inch floppy disks in its missile launch control system in 2019. And last year, we reported on an Illinois Chuck E. Cheese using a 3.5-inch floppy for its animatronics system.

US-based Floppydisk.com told The Register that Japan’s rule changes shouldn’t endanger the business. Its Japanese customers are “mostly hobbyists and private parties that have machines or musical equipment that continue to use floppy disks,” Tom Persky, who runs the site, said. Floppydisk.com also sells data-transfer services but told The Register in 2022 that the bulk of revenue is from blank floppy disk sales. At the time, Persky said he expected the company to last until at least 2026.

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