Phys.Org has a report that many important systems are still running on obsolete computer systems. The US Strategic Automated Command and Control System is based on an IBM series 1 minicomputer from the 1960s. An Arduino microcontroller board, used by many enthusiasts, has more processing power. There are no big plans to change it, because it works and is stable. I guess the idea is "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The story mentions that Cobol and Fortran, from the 50s and 60s are still used as the underpinning for many current systems. I know that I talked to a programmer with one of the high tech flight simulator companies here in the Tulsa area and he said that they use Fortran for their math routines.
Also I read a story (Midnight Riot {Moon Over Soho in Britain] by Ben Aaronovitch). In the story our hero meets the archivist for the magical police agency. The archivist keeps his records on an obsolete computer. He calls it 'security by obsolescence'.
The story is at
Would you trust your nuclear missiles to a floppy disk?Bill Gill
