Apple retir\u00f3 unidades de disquete en \u00a01998 , PC Dell hizo lo mismo en 2003 y ahora no son m\u00e1s que un recuerdo lejano.\u00a0 Pero, de acuerdo con un informe del comit\u00e9 de cuentas p\u00fablicas reciente gobierno de Estados Unidos, los sistemas inform\u00e1ticos existentes que utilizan disquetes todav\u00eda se utilizan \u00a0para el control de parte del Comando Nuclear de Estados Unidos. Su sustituci\u00f3n es demasiado compleja, demasiado dif\u00edcil , demasiado caro, o los tres…<\/p>\n
What can you do with a floppy disk these days? Apple retired floppy drives with its original 1998 iMac<\/a>, PC manufacturer Dell followed suit in 2003<\/a> and now they are but a distant memory. But, according to a recent US government public accounts committee report<\/a>, legacy computer systems using floppy disks are still used today for controlling part of the US Nuclear Command.<\/p>\n In the old days a \u201clegacy\u201d was something valuable that you might be left when a great aunt passed away. In the world of computers, they are a lot less fun: a legacy computer system is one that is old \u2013 obsolete even \u2013 but one which you are stuck with, often simply because it does the job and replacing it is too complex, too difficult, too expensive, or all three.<\/p>\n You might think such systems are rare in this modern day, but in fact whenever you buy something on a credit or debit card, conduct banking transactions, or take a flight, among other things, computer systems dating back many decades are an integral part of the process. Banks, air traffic control systems and many core civil or military functions rely on technology that is well past its sell-by date<\/a>.<\/p>\n To put this into context, the system in question, the Pentagon\u2019s Strategic Automated Command and Control System<\/a>, is part of a 53-year old computer network built around the IBM Series\/1 minicomputer<\/a>. Priced at between US$10,000-100,0000 when launched in 1976, it has around the same power as today\u2019s Arduino microcontroller<\/a> boards for home-brew projects that can be bought for a few pounds. The huge 8\u201d floppy disks hold a 500 kilobytes (0.5 megabytes) of data. You\u2019d need around four of these disks to store just one average MP3 music file<\/a>.<\/p>\n But amazing though it something as antiquated as this Series\/1 minicomputer sounds, the report<\/a> indicates that it alive and well in the bowels of the Pentagon to \u201chandle functions related to intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear bombers and tanker support aircraft\u201d. One hopes it is still working well and that there is a cupboard full of spare System 1 boards, chips and power supplies to keep it running.<\/p>\n