Ask any gardener, once you let ivy grow, it gets everywhere. Even though Intel just planted a fresh family of Sandy Bridge-based server CPUs, reports of a new line of Xeon E3 chips sporting the firm's next generation architecture are sprouting up. The new Ivy Bridge server chips use the firm's 3D Tri-Gate transistors to improve performance without using more power. For micro servers looking for an even smaller power footprint, Intel is introducing an Atom-based system on a chip, dubbed Centerton. These new 64-bit chips will feature two Atom processor cores and consume only six watts of electricity. Intel hasn't said yet just where these new processors are going to end up, but mentioned that it had a few customers on board.

Intel plans to roll out Ivy Bridge based Xeon E3s, low-power Atom chips for micro servers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Apr 2012 05:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hand-cranked vending machine offers products sans power, refreshments during emergencies (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Mar 2012 21:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Urine! It's disgusting, not to mention a sanitation problem. But new research says it cold be put to good use creating electricity. More »

Continue reading Gordon Murray's 350MPG EV sweeps the board and steals our hearts

Gordon Murray's 350MPG EV sweeps the board and steals our hearts originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When you think of Facebook you don't exactly think 'environmentally friendly'. All those data centres burning through electricity, powering your virtual social lives. Facebook's first push out of the US might be a tad kinder to the environment, using Arctic cooling. More »

Copper wire's relatively cheap, pliable and can conduct electricity, but it's hardly ideal. Powering cities requires cables meters wide and the metal loses a lot of energy as heat. Fortunately, a team from Tel Aviv University thinks it's solved the problem. Borrowing a fiber of sapphire from the Oakridge National Lab in Tennessee, it developed a superconducting wire barely thicker than a human hair that conducts 40 times the electricity of its copper brethren. Cooled with liquid nitrogen, the sapphire superconductors carry current without heating up, which is key to their efficiency. The team is now working on practical applications of the technology -- because it's so small and pliable (unlike previous superconductors) it could replace copper in domestic settings and its cold efficiency makes it perfect to transmit power long distances from green energy stations. The wire's going on a world tour as we speak and will touch down at the ATSC conference in Baltimore in October. Anyone who makes jokes about wires and Baltimore will be asked to leave, politely.

Superconducting sapphire wires are as cool as they sound originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Sep 2011 05:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every move you make is another ten watts you waste. Which is why researchers at InStep NanoPower are working towards taking that spring in your step, and turning it into juice for your gadgets. Flipping the process of electrowetting on its head, whereby mechanical energy is converted into electricity via a microfluid transfer, the team was able to pound some pavement-generated milliwatts out of mercury and galinstan. The tech is far from a real world debut, with its practical, portable device-powering merits achievable only in theory. So, until this device manages to get off the ground, we're going to lump it in with past piezoelectric efforts, and call it like it is -- pics, or it didn't happen.

Electrowetted insoles charge your strut, The Police stand by for music licensing deal originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Aug 2011 05:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba is just the latest company to enter the robovac fray. Samsung, ASUS and LG have already tested the waters against the mighty iRobot, now it's Smarbo's turn to try its hand at automated vacuuming. Inside the round floor cleaner are 38 sensors that help it avoid obstacles and keep it from falling down stairs, as well as a CPU or CPUs that sport "double brain function" according to the machine translated PR. The bot is quite quick, supposedly able to clean 100 square meters (over 1,000 square feet) in about 90 minutes, and only uses a few pennies worth of electricity to do so. Toshiba's vacubot will hit shelves in Japan for around $1,100 on October first, but it does suffer one distinct disadvantage -- DJ Smarbo just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Continue reading Toshiba Smarbo takes on dirt, Roomba, music playing prowess unclear

Toshiba Smarbo takes on dirt, Roomba, music playing prowess unclear originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Aug 2011 16:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Having trouble learning the violin? Finges not moving as they should? All thumbs? Just be patient. In the future there will exist devices that take control of your limbs and use electricity to make them move on their own. More »

Here's an amazing story to end your week on a high note: a 25-year-old paraplegic is now walking again, thanks to a groundbreaking procedure developed by neuroscientists at the University of Louisville, UCLA and Cal Tech. The Oregon man, Rob Summers, was paralyzed below the chest in 2006, after getting hit by a speeding car. This week, however, doctors announced that Summers can now stand up on his own and remain standing for up to four minutes. With the help of a special harness, he can even take steps on a treadmill and can move his lower extremities for the first time in years. It was all made possible by a spinal implant that emits small pulses of electricity, designed to replicate signals that the brain usually sends to coordinate movement. Prior to receiving the implant in 2009, Summers underwent two years of training on a treadmill, with a harness supporting his weight and researchers moving his legs. This week's breakthrough comes after 30 years of research, though scientists acknowledge that this brand of epidural stimulation still needs to be tested on a broader sample of subjects before any definitive conclusions can be drawn. Summers, meanwhile, seems understandably elated. "This procedure has completely changed my life," the former baseball player said. "To be able to pick up my foot and step down again was unbelievable, but beyond all of that my sense of well-being has changed." We can only imagine.

Paralyzed man can stand and walk again, thanks to spinal implant originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 May 2011 08:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rusty Oliver, here in his workshop otherwise known as the Hazardfactory, created this sculpture he calls "the Singularity." The voltage he's pumping through those manifolds shape the flames to create a really beautiful EQ meter. Imagine this at concerts. [Wired] More »

Some people hate IKEA. Not me. Affordable, pseudo-stylish furniture that's easy to build? Perfect. Like these SOLVINDEN solar table lamps that come in an array of colors, will cost you nothing in electricity and only ring you up for 20 bucks. I'm in for all 4. [IKEA via BoingBoing] More »

Geely McCar comes with an electric scooter for people who hate walking originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Apr 2011 13:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EV charging station announcements are almost becoming commonplace (keyword: almost), but not so much that we aren't happy to welcome one more. This week NRG Energy unveiled it's first eVgo branded "Freedom Station" at a Dallas Walgreens, and aims to pepper the map with a total of 60 such units by Labor Day. Each eVgo freedom station will pack both a quick charging 480V AC/DC converter (juicing up a Nissan Leaf to 80 percent in about 30 minutes), as well as a 240V Level 2 charger (netting 25 miles of "go" per charging hour). NRG plans to cover the Dallas / Fort Worth and Houston areas with 120 of these guys by the end of 2012. Like others before it, the eVgo network plans to follow a subscription model -- with the premiere plan ($89 a month on a three year contract) not only covering the cost of usage at eVgo charging stations, but that of electricity used at your home charging dock, too. Toss in a handful of generous EV owners rocking PlugShare, and Dallas has the makings of a low-emissions wonderland.

NRG's eVgo charging stations hope to catch the eyes of Texas originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Apr 2011 23:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It isn't exactly the hottest hybrid we've ever seen, Porsche's ludicrous 918 RSR still takes that crown, but the Veritas RSIII Roadster Hybrid is certainly no wheezy commuter. It's a tiny, open-topped racer that features a 507HP V10 from BMW that's been paired with a 105kW motor to spin the front wheels. It's much the same arrangement of the Porsche, again relying on a KERS flywheel to generate electricity that's stored in a Li-ion battery pack, which can also be charged separately. The car can actually limp around for up to 31 miles powered by just that front motor, but when both sources of thrust are called upon the sled gets to 62MPH in 3.1 seconds, as fast as a 911 Turbo S, and it'll keep on going until the speedo hits 205 -- or the car hits something immovable. No word on price or availability, but there is a version with a roof coming this summer, and a fully-electric model due in 2013.

Veritas RSIII Roadster Hybrid melds plug-in tech with 600HP originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Mar 2011 18:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Squatters in Venezuela have found a home in an unfinished 45-story skyscraper in Venezuela. They call their home the "Tower of David", after the financier who tried to build it in the '90s. People live up to the 28th floor in the elevator-less building and have jury-rigged electricity and water to every inhabited floor. Some of the squatters even have DirecTV satellite dishes set up. More »

The new V60 is billed by its creators as being a "naughty Volvo," and while the reviews we've read of its sedan counterpart haven't exactly found it to be particularly uncouth, we're thinking the upcoming plug-in wagon version should be even more friendly. Volvo has announced it will unveil the PHEV V60 in Geneva in March before releasing it for sale in 2012. When fully charged it will offer 50km (31 miles) on pure electricity -- about the same as the Volt -- thanks to a 70hp electric motor mounted in the rear and driving the wheels out back courtesy of a 12kWh Li-ion battery pack. Up front, meanwhile, is a 215hp, 2.4 liter, five-cylinder turbodiesel. It remains to be seen whether there is any mechanical link between the disparate power systems or whether they remain alone, working together yet apart, but we should be getting all the details shortly.

Continue reading Volvo set to unveil V60 Plug-in at Geneva, pledges to be slightly less naughty

Volvo set to unveil V60 Plug-in at Geneva, pledges to be slightly less naughty originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Jan 2011 11:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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