Friday, October 03, 2008

Free-Piston Engines Are Ultra-Efficient, Could Replace Gas and Diesel [Engines]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/409932257/free+piston-engines-are-ultra+efficient-could-replace-gas-and-diesel

As we move towards battery and hydrogen cell breakthroughs that could wean us off our addiction to oil, here's at least one engine design from yesteryear that ought to be examined a bit more. The free-piston engine, first invented in 1920, is cheap to build and roughly twice as efficient as current gas engines.

Unlike its conventional counterpart, free-piston engines don't have a mechanical connect between the piston and a crankshaft. Instead, magnets at the center of the piston's rod move past metal coils to create an electrical current. The engine's configuration allows it to combust fuel quicker, improving efficiency, emissions and easily optimized for different fuels.

The bad news: they're hard to control (variations in combustion cycles can cause poor performance) and they're incredibly loud (the quick explosions need to be muffled somehow). But automakers, such as GM and Volvo, are already investigating putting the engines in future vehicles. Lets hope their forays into this don't take as long as their exploration of fuel cell options. [Technology Review via Treehugger]


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AMD Promises DirectX11 in 2009 [Amd]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/409971041/amd-promises-directx11-in-2009

AMD has confirmed rumors that it is working on DirectX 11, announcing at CEATEC that it plans to release its first DirectX 11-compatible GPUs in 2009. The company also predicted an increase in general purpose computing on GPUs (GPGPU) and a transition to a 40nm fabricating standard, which ought to give graphics chip performance rates a considerable boost. In layman terms: Things are about to get a lot bigger and a lot prettier. [Xbit Labs via Tweaktown]


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Philips reveals 56-inch Quad Full 3D HDTV in Hollywood

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/409264370/

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On the slim chance that a 52-inch, no-glasses-needed 3D HDTV wasn't swank enough for you, Philips is one-upping itself at the Biz-Ex conference in Hollywood. This 56-inch monstrosity is hailed as a Quad Full Autostereoscopic 3D HDTV, which means that it packs a slightly absurd (in a good way, of course) 3,840 x 2,160 resolution and can churn through data at an alarming rate. Additionally, Philips is promising that this one can produce up to 46 views at once, which should go a long way in making the third-dimension a lot more believable on TV. There's no definitive release date just yet, but it'll probably run upwards of $25,000 whenever it's ready for prime time.
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Acer's F-22bid LCD sounds like a jet, looks like a Ferrari

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/409326564/

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Acer's F-22bid LCD sounds like a jet, looks like a Ferrari
We've seen Ferrari's logo and lacquer applied to everything from GPS nav systems to overpriced clock radios, each product diluting the brand that Enzo built bit by bit. Acer is the most common enabler, and its latest prancing horse-decal'd product is the F-22bid, a 22-inch LCD sporting a 1680 x 1050 resolution and a racy (sorry) 2ms gray-to-gray response rate. Brightness is the standard 300cd/m2, though a contrast ratio of 20,000:1 impresses, and VGA, DVI, and HDMI inputs mean it should easily connect to just about all of your headless video outputting devices -- but at what cost? Acer isn't telling, and with only 500 of these being built, we're not expecting affordability here.

Update: Jody commented to let us know that a seemingly identical, but apparently non-limited-edition version of this monitor is available right now at NewEgg for just $309.

[Via Akihabara]
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Samsung's SWC-E100 XOHM WiMAX ExpressCard gets reviewed

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/409337193/

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Now that Sprint's XOHM service is officially live in downtown Baltimore (and working in cars, phew!), how's about taking a look at the card that's handling the magic? Samsung's SWC-E100 ExpressCard, which was conveniently leaked by Sprint early last month, is a "simple, inexpensive" card that does a more-than-adequate job at placing you on the mobile broadband superhighway. Reviewers at PC Mag dubbed it a "solid first effort from Samsung for getting laptops onto Sprint's fast XOHM WiMAX network," and while the card "worked as advertised," the inability to work with EV-DO or any non-WiMAX protocol was sort of a downer. Furthermore, the card won't play nice with OS X and there's no external antenna port, but they do bundle a potentially important extra: a PC Card slot adapter for users with aging laptops. Bottom line? Not too shabby for $59.99 sans contract.
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