US nuclear-powered nuclear weapons launch using floppy disks

The computer that controls the launch of the Minuteman ballistic missiles at the US Air Force base in Wyoming is not of the current, or even of the past, generation - it was designed more than half a century ago. Information is loaded into it from a floppy disk with a capacity of 1,44 or 2,88 megabytes, writes Popular Mechanics.

For 1971, this technique was super modern, but now a computer the size of a cabinet with an 16 megabyte of RAM and a 100-megabyte hard disk looks like a touching anachronism. And he manages the launch of 150 ballistic missiles, whose mines are located on the territory of a military base.

However, the rocket men are not going to upgrade computing equipment. Their computers do not have access to the Internet, with the launch shafts, other rocket bases and the command they are connected by an autonomous network. And this is not a fiber, but a copper cable laid into the ground. Diskettes with missile launch managers of older rocket programs — young officers arriving at the base have to master an ancient and unusually slow technology.

Older computers are more difficult to fool than modern ones.

- Consider at the air base. True, not everyone agrees with them - the United States Audit Chamber published a report on the obsolete IT infrastructure of federal facilities, including prisons and military bases.

Comments

[Botanist]

It seems to me similarly .....

[Zaurbek]

Do not be surprised if using punch cards.

[Shura Perm]

the main thing is the reliability and the impossibility of remote hacking ... but at least with a two-story house there will be a computer, the essence is not in size)

[Zaurbek]

Yes, but in the end it turns out the submarine is 2 times more than necessary .... and loses in stealth.

[Vladimir16]

Nevertheless, rocketers are not going to update computer technology. Their computers do not have Internet access,

Who prevents to put modern computers without access to the Internet?
This makes no sense.

[NKT]

But so that they do not go with their flash drives

[Shurik70]

Quote: Zaurbek

Yes, but in the end it turns out the submarine is 2 times more than necessary .... and loses in stealth.

I believe that the technique is more modern in submarines. And they update it more often.
And this is a ground military base. So the size is not important. Reliability and cracking are important. On ships, non-cracking is surely provided in the same way - network autonomy and the uniqueness of machine processor codes. Only computers are newer

[gromoboj]

Why change what works?

[SOF]

Quote: Zaurbek

Do not be surprised if using punch cards.

... the following question is interesting: do they update floppy disks?
And then, it’s not even an hour, it’s necessary to let it go, but they demagnetized
... then our punch cards, if so, would be better ...

[Zaurbek]

There are probably inventories when they switched to SD ...

[bk316]

There are probably inventories when they switched to SD ...

So their shelf life also expired, it’s not the cannons that they canned and keep 100 years.

[Dedall]

I still have a dozen 5- and 3-inch ones and even have disk drives, but the ferro layer has been showered with them for a long time and I really regret it because I once wrote programs for FoxBase on them for analyzing the incidence rate. And it seems to me that computers in 1971 still did not use floppy disks. In any case, we once had a spark at the department, which was loaded from a tape recorder.

[zoff-2017]

In 1971 there were 7-inch floppy disks.

[ZAV69]

8 inch. I even have a drive somewhere lying in the barn

[_Jack_]

or bad sectors appeared on a diskette and info is lost, I remember it was not uncommon then

[SOF]

... they’re afraid of dust, and some water, and just rustling in an envelope is not really ice for them ...
A good carrier of strategic information .....

[NOMADE]

Floppy disks are easily demagnetized in the trash .. (I remember that I lost the exchange rate .. True, then restored from the computer)
In fact, if there is protection for the main carriers, then these capacities are quite enough for the strategic troops.

[Govorun]

... on papyrus ...

[HAM]

Botanikas, are there ballistic missiles in Lithuania ??

[siberalt]

Vacuum tubes with re-cards are the most reliable. They will withstand an electromagnetic pulse from nuclear weapons.

[abrakadabre]

Vacuum tubes with re-cards are the most reliable. They will withstand an electromagnetic pulse from nuclear weapons.

Especially if punch cards are made not from paper, but ... for example from a thick metal sheet. From non-magnetic steel, for example.

[Mikhail m]

Quote: Botanikas

It seems to me similarly .....

I remember we still had ferrite cells. But terribly resistant to the effects of nuclear weapons.
As for floppy disks, they can now store owls. secret information. Not a single shpien counts. Steeper unless a zip disk.

[vadson]

you still record on a tape recorder (audio cassette))))

[ZAV69]

There was such a thing ARVID once.

[Mikhail m]

11 compartment for you an empty sound, because commentary is informational garbage.

[svd-xnumx]

As for floppy disks, they can now store owls. secret information. Not a single shpien counts. Steeper except that the zip disk

At our factory, adjusters 3 years ago searched
A 5-inch drive to set up an old German glass-forming machine (they just sent a floppy diskette, the roofing felts were complete, I don’t remember), they didn’t find such a drive.

[RASKAT]

We have using the Keys. They do not demagnetize, do not burn, and it is rather difficult to damage.

[neri73-r]

Quote: Botanikas

It seems to me similarly .....

You definitely !! But in Russia, no.

[ando_bor]

Quote: neri73-r

You definitely !! But in Russia, no.

Yes, hired migrants, as a rule, throw the first comments, - on duty, - they have such a job.

[tol100v]

Quote: Botanikas

It seems to me similarly .....

Quite possible. As for serious documents, they are executed on typewriters.

[romandostalo]

And the launch itself takes place using the Felix arithmometer ...........

[Cheldon]

During the events in Yugoslavia, the Yankees tried to drown the ACS "Air", and then were "pleasantly" surprised when they found out that the control is through selsyn sensors.

[zzdimk]

Fine. So monumental.

[Berber]

I recall the EU 1036, covering an area of ​​100 square meters. m. And hung up with or without cause.

[Greenwood]

That's right, and they’re doing that.

For 1971, this technique was super modern, but now a computer the size of a cabinet with 16 megabytes of RAM and a 100 megabyte hard drive looks like a touching anachronism.

Really super modern computer for the beginning of the 70s. I remember similar configs were in use in the early 90's. I remember how in DOOM I played on the 486th with just 16 MB of RAM and Windows 95. There was some kind of happiness at that time.

[Vladimir16]

In the 90th, happiness was for any reason !!! When you are twenty years old, you just came from the army .... frost is dick!

[Dimon19661]

Yes, something like that with us, punched tape, magnetic media on tape ...

[Russia]

It seems like a disaster happened, apparently grandfather was invited from the last century to conjure over it.

[CentDo]

Do we have the latest generation supercomputers everywhere? Surely the same ancient monsters.

[KVU-NSVD]

For old computers, only ancient hackers are scary. And the secrets of their magic have been lost in the darkness of centuries - but in the dark Mordor, whose Whose Name You Can't Call the Ring of Power And in the case = if the equipment is reliable, serviceable, well-developed and meets the assigned task, then changing it to suit the creative appearance is stupid, and in connection with nuclear weapons

[Dormidont]

Our specialists and accounts hack

[Dormidont]

Cards are more reliable

[bald]

Autonomy is, first of all, the age of the computer is not important. But what kind of diskette gets to him ?! - a matter of regimen.

[A. Privalov]

Last year, the security system of a very large one, even according to world standards, was launched using an 5,25 floppy disk in.

I remember the end of 80's ditty:
There is a floppy on the table
She has a spoiled bout.
Through the hole in the envelope
Viruses creep into it.

[Vard]

Good old DOC ... Until now, everything is based on it ...

[bk316]

Good old DOC ... Until now, everything is based on it ...

DOC - what kind of beast?
Enlighten my sclerosis ....

[abrakadabre]

DOC - what kind of beast?
Enlighten my sclerosis ....

This is what Bill Gates' first loot earned: Disk operation system or DOS. Or rather MS DOS.

[bk316]

Or rather MS DOS.

A person who writes DOC instead of DOS. It has NO relation to the industry. (Or maybe he goes to kindergarten ) IT IS LIKE A LANGUAGE OF A LANGUAGE THAT DOES NOT KNOW THE WORDS OF MOM. It is not necessary for such individuals to make any statements whatsoever, let alone such

Good old DOC ... Until now, everything is based on it ...

[abrakadabre]

Well, if you mean in this plane, then there are no questions.

[jjj]

The guys on business trips visited such "soft" diskettes, having pulled the disk itself out of the case, fried eggs on the iron. Just the egg enters the diskette and does not burn

[Dedall]

They probably had a fluoroplastic envelope. The lavsan floppy disks themselves are coated with a ferro layer, and, as you know, it is flammable. And I add that the domestic floppy disks were with kapron envelopes. These terribly electrified.

[Vard]

The reactor control on our Submarines is carried out by two relay racks ... That is, in general, not any electronics ...

[screw cutter]

Well, there radiation, if that, will format everything.

[ICT]

IT infrastructure of federal facilities, including prisons and military bases

[/ Quote]

but heap everything in a heap,

[quote] 1,44 or 2,88 megabytes, writes Popular Mechanics.

yes barrelcharik still translated all this from American comedians

there is just the problem not in diskettes, but in a general mess like our anegdot:

"who mother threw your boot on the remote control", but not a word about it


(Carthage must be destroyed: that is, return the minus so at least the essence will be visible)

[NOTaFED]

Anything better than with a smartphone

[Sands Careers General]

And what, from an iPhone or something to launch rockets? The technique was reliable then, what is the point of changing it, if it works.

[dzen123]

"... Their computers do not have access to the Internet, an autonomous network connects them with launching mines, other missile bases and command. And this is not optical fiber, but laid in the ground copper cable..."

This is called - burned. Our diggers will come along under the guise of "Russo tourist - visually moral". At once they feel the veins, so skat - "by the smell of copper." And kirdyk enemy network. Then, videos about the harsh Russian stalkers and how they "went for swag" for Akiyan will be walking on YouTube.

[CAT BAIYUN]

Oh yeah!!!
It's time to equip the expedition of highly professional homeless people (no less than the rank of Major MTR) for colormet !!!!

[Vard]

These are not the pros that are needed in this case ... I know people ... For example, one of them strips a five-kilo email in the field. The motor from the winding in five minutes ... In the electrical shop at the factory, it is done in eight hours ... There are also specialists in cable cutting. ..

[Razvedka_Boem]

I had to somehow run into a computer from Digital Equipment. The program codes were printed on dense cardboard, columns of four-digit numbers, which were entered through the console, which is a series of switches - top position "1", down position "0" ..
By the way, it was completely working, despite more than a dozen years of operation.

[bk316]

The program codes were printed on dense cardboard, columns of four-digit numbers, which were entered through the console, which is a series of switches - top position "1", down position "0" ..

C'mon, don't drive.
On the PDP-8, the base was not a punch card reader, but a punch tape reader.
And from the console, programs were not entered at all, but the initial state of the registers (they were just 4 bit). Well, the bootloader yet. It was then to her periphery that even the magnetic disks and displays were fucked up.

[Razvedka_Boem]

There was no punch card reader, and through the values ​​of the registers the machine code was just entered, which was printed on these cartons. There was also a teletype through which there was a dialogue with computers.
It was a long time ago, and the model was not like the PDP-8, but more complicated, but the console looked almost the same.
But I remembered it precisely in relation to the article, in the sense that a really reliable thing turned out to be.

[bk316]

You have a photo from PDP-8 / s (from EFL and especially 400 other consoles), although it is probably backward compatible from E and F. On PDP-8 / s, only MBR (memory buffer register) was entered from the console - an analogue of the bootloader, the analogue of the memory where the programs were stored was called MAR.
On F, you could indeed enter MAR from the console. What is the coolest on the go, that is, it was an analogue of the debugger. And the console F looks like this

So you programmed on efk. I’m on both the one and the other and another 400. And it’s reliable, of course - we were written off from her at 85. There simply was nothing to break.
But if you return to the article, then this does not apply to floppy disks.

[Razvedka_Boem]

And it’s reliable, of course - we wrote it off at 85

I saw a working sample in the early 2000s ..)

[bk316]

I saw a working sample in the early 2000s ..)

Well, it was written off from us simply because it was not needed, and it worked like that.
If not for 4 bit registers, maybe for training they would have left ....

And if we talk about warriors, I think 5E26 is still working somewhere.

[CAT BAIYUN]

a computer the size of a cabinet with 16 megabytes of RAM and a 100 megabyte hard drive looks like a touching anachronism

Does it work? And let yourself work ...
In old devices there is a greater resource of reliability than in fresh gadget.
Is it newer, more reliable and better? - Perfectly!

[longin]

1. Workable.
2. Satisfies performance requirements.
3. Adequate level of reliability and stability.

And what is there to argue?

[CooL_SnipeR]

So that in PUBG not gamali

[faterdom]

This is still unreliable. Here are the laws of King Hammurabi why they became known as the first written ones? And because cuneiform writing and on a stone pillar - here there are at least some guarantees of data safety!

[prosto_rgb]

but Russian hackers will not get;)

[bratchanin3]

In this regard, the Americans are right. And why modernize morally obsolete, but physically strong equipment. The time will come, they will install a new one, and the old one will be dismantled.

[uskrabut]

nothing surprising. if it works reliably, then why change it to a new one? mankind flew into space in general with the help of a slide rule and Bradis tables.

[Clueless]

Floppy disks are not the main thing here, many forget that almost all modern computers have a bunch of holes in both hardware and software, many boards have bookmarks, etc.
And then the old computer, which was created back in those days when no one thought about the “bookmarks,” there was no Internet. Everything is simple and reliable. Spare iron is enough for more than a dozen years.

We also have typewriters for secrets in the armies, the nuclear weapons control also clearly works on old equipment.