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