NVIDIA GeForce 326.80 Beta Drivers Now Available; Perfect for Splinter Cell: Blacklist
If you're planning to pick up the new Splinter Cell game and own an NVIDIA GeForce graphics card, you'll be happy to know a new driver is available to get you the best experience possible. GeForce 326.80 Game Ready driver is a beta driver, but it's the perfect way to get the most out of Splinter Cell: Blacklist. It's also the recommended driver for anyone on Windows 8.1 Preview, so it's good to grab for that if you aren't picking up the game. NVIDIA says performance is boosted by 19% in various games compared to the WHQL 320.49 drivers when using a GeForce 400/500/600/700 series card. One card provided as an example, the GTX 770, shows a 15% increase in DiRT: Showdown and 6% in Tomb Raider, while two GTX 770s in SLI provide a 19% boost in DiRT: Showdown and 11% in F1 2012.
Additional features with the GeForce 326.80 drivers include SLI profiles for Splinter Cell: Blacklist and the upcoming Batman: Arkham Origins (arrives October 25), support for streaming to the SHIELD (provided you have a GTX 650 or better), and even support for more 4K tiled displays. You can grab the GeForce 326.80 drivers from GeForce.com or through GeForce Experience if beta updates are selected.
Source: NVIDIA GeForce
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High Temperature Capacitor Created
One of the fundamental electronic components is the capacitor, which is capable of storing energy in an electrical field. Capacitors are needed for many electronics to operate properly including electric vehicles powered by batteries, but are typically unreliable at high temperatures. Researchers at the National Physical Laboratory however have developed a high temperature capacitor for such a situation, and more.
To find the capacitor, the researchers started with a range of materials that could potentially be used to make a high temperature capacitor. As the materials were tested, the better performing were further optimized, to determine which the best was. Ultimately the researchers created a ceramic capacitor based on doped-BiFeO3 (bismuth, iron, and oxygen). This capacitor is able to operate at roughly normal efficiency at over 200 ºC, which is much higher than any other capacitor on the market. The capacitor also has a higher energy density, allowing it to store more energy.
While electric-vehicle manufacturers are definitely going to be interested in the new capacitor, many other technologies could benefit from it. Wherever pulsed power is required, such as defibrillators, and or harsh environments exist that require electronics, such as in the oil and natural gas industry.
Source: National Physical Laboratory
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G.Skill Announces Ripjaws Targeted at Laptops
The latest memory release from G.Skill, the Ripjaws DDR3 SO-DIMM Memory, is designed for laptop users. The memory kit runs on 1.35V allowing for less power consumption and heat generation for mobile systems where both issues are a large concern. These kits are available at operating frequencies of 1866MHz and 1600MHz and are compatible with third and fourth generation Intel Core processors. There will be four options at each frequency, 1x4GB, 2x4GB, 1x8GB, and 2x8GB.
Source: Press Release
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ASUS Motherboard Receives Thunderbolt 2 Certification
The Z87 Deluxe/Quad is the latest Z87 chipset motherboard from ASUS and it is the first motherboard to receive Thunderbolt 2 certification from Intel. The ATX motherboard can handle up to 12 devices through two Thunderbolt ports, each of which can reach speeds up to 20 Gb/s. The combination of Thunderbolt 2, DisplayPort 1.2, and HDMI gives the board enough power to support three 4K displays at once. The board also supports four DIMMs, three PCIe cards, ten SATA 3 devices, and 16 USB devices.
Source: Press Release
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Making More Efficient Diesel Engines
With millions of long-haul trucks shipping products across the nation, fuel efficiency is important. Luckily, diesel engines are, in general, more efficient than gasoline engines, but they are not perfect, especially when considering their exhaust. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have recently analyzed diesel engines and developed some ways to improve their efficiency while reducing the pollutants in their exhaust.
To increase efficiency, the researchers worked on a low-temperature combustion (LTC) strategy. This strategy recirculates some exhaust back into the engine, where it absorbs heat from the combustion process. By reducing the combustion temperature, the engine also reduces the amount of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter that are formed, but the amount of carbon monoxide and unburned hydrocarbons increase. This, the researchers found, is due to regions where there is too little fuel mixed with air, so they added post-injections to increase fuel concentrations. This in turn improves efficiency as less fuel is left unburned.
The hope for this research is that engine designers will be able to use it to develop better, more efficient engines. Given the cost of diesel currently, I suspect many of those designers will be eager to study the results.
Source: Sandia National Laboratories
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Neoseeker Partners with Overwolf for In-Game Access to Image Upload, Forums, and More
Our sister site Neoseeker has recently partnered with Overwolf to provide a new experience in games. Overwolf is an overlay app designed to keep you connected with social media, chat programs, and more, while not interfering in the slightest with your games. Recording footage of a sweet moment or just taking a bunch of pictures are also possible with it. Downloading Overwolf and then connecting it to your Neoseeker account also opens up a lot of other features, like uploading screenshots to your Neoseeker gallery, accessing the game's forum or profile page, and even go directly to Neoseeker's homepage for all the latest news without leaving your game session. You can also access walkthroughs if you're stuck in a certain section, browse FAQs, and even pull up some cheats if need be.
Overwolf already provides access to Facebook, Twitter, Skype, and YouTube, plus chat programs like Steam Chat and TeamSpeak, and even music services like Pandora and Grooveshark. You can also code your own apps and get them on the Overwolf Appstore, if you're particularly skilled. The partnership with Neoseeker just adds a whole lot more to the equation, and all in a program that doesn't pull extra resources away from games. A ton of games are supported already, with more being added each day. Overwolf is a nice addition to your games, and more than 2.1 million gamers are already benefitting from it.
More details about Overwolf can be found at the Neoseeker Overwolf page, and you can download it here.
Source: Neoseeker
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Controlling Superconductors' Properties
For many applications, the electrical resistance of wires can be annoying, as it zaps away energy and heats the wire, potentially damaging it. A superconducting wire would not experience these problems though, as superconductors transmit electricity with no resistance, but materials only superconductor under special conditions. As the applications we may wish to use superconductors in do not produce those conditions, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory decided to experiment with defects, to see if they can tune the materials.
To make a material into a superconductor, it is necessary to cool it past a critical temperature, which can be quite cold, even for high-temperature superconductors. Luckily many applications, such as large-scale motors and generators, can operate at such low temperatures. Another requirement that may be harder to satisfy though concerns the magnetic field the superconductor may be exposed to. Generally magnetism will disrupt and destroy a superconducting state, if the field is strong enough. By carefully tweaking the non-superconducting defects added to superconducting wires, the ORNL researchers were able to achieve a record performance under conditions some applications are designed to operate at; 65 Kelvin and 3 Tesla.
To create and manipulate the defects, the researchers used a self-assembly process to affect the superconductors microstructure as it grew. Fortunately this process does not add much to production costs, so hopefully we will see industries attempting to apply superconductors to more existing and future technologies before long.
Source: Oak Ridge National Laboratory
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Gigabyte Sponsors Overclocking Contest
Gigabyte has launched a new overclocking contest, Pi is Returned, in conjunction with HWBOT. The contest runs until September 16 and features $5,000 in cash prizes. The competition is split into two groups with two stages each. One group is for the AMD FM2 platform and the other is for the AMD AM3+ platform. Stage one uses Super Pi 1M and stage two uses Super Pi 32M. First prize in each category will net the winner $500, second will earn $250, and third will get a Gigabyte motherboard and AMD APU. If a world record is broken in any category, the winner will get an additional $500. Full contest rules can be found at the HWBOT link.
Source: Press Release
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Gigabyte Adds New FM2+ Motherboards
The Gigabyte A88X series of motherboards is targeted at the next generation of FM2+ AMD APUs, better known as Kaveri. Users looking to pair the motherboards with existing APUs are in luck as the boards support current generation FM2 Trinity and Richland APUs. A total of seven boards will be released, including the first G1-Killer board to support AMD APUs, the G1.Sniper A88X. The remaining six boards are the F2A88X-UP4, F2A88X-D3H, F2A88X-HD3, F2A88XM-D3H, F2A85XM-DS2, and F2A88XN-WIFI.
The G1.Sniper A88X is the highlight of the new crop of motherboards, with two new audio features. The Gigabyte USB DAC-UP provides a Digital-to-Analog converter and Gain Boost to provide improved sound quality for high end headphones and speakers. The board also has an upgrade able Op-Amp that can be easily replaced with a socket mount to provide users with additional customization options.
Source: Press Release
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Using Grains to Control Sound Waves
Crystals are important materials because of their well-ordered molecular structures. By controlling these structures, it is possible to affect control on waves including light waves and sound waves. Now researchers at MIT have started examining how microscopic grains can be used in a similar way.
Though visibly dissimilar, granular materials can behave like crystals, as the grains order themselves like molecules ordering themselves in crystals. Researchers have known this for some time, but have typically kept to studying grains about the size of a piece of sand. The MIT researchers decided to go about a thousand times smaller, with grains just one micrometer across. By carefully attaching the microspheres to a substrate, the researchers were able to create a 2D granular material capable of guiding and slowing surface acoustic waves. These types of waves are used in a variety of electronics, including cellphones.
As the material the researchers made is two dimensional, they suspect it may be possible to shrink the devices that process surface acoustic waves to one-sixth their current size. Also by combining layers of the material, it should be possible to create a blast-shielding material that protect against an explosion's shock waves.
Source: MIT
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