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Engadget previews Ferrari's future hypercars at the World Design Contest (video)
Ferrari's been one of the most respected car manufacturers in the world since the 1940s, but it hasn't exactly gotten there by being bleeding-edge. In the early '60s, when rear-engined cars were sweeping the charts in Formula One, Il Commendatore -- Enzo Ferrari -- refused to take one racing, famously saying "the horse doesn't push the cart along with its nose." It would take many humiliating defeats before his company would finally put that horse where it belongs. Being an early adopter, obviously, was not a priority. It's only in the past few years, with cars like the Enzo and 458 Italia, that Ferrari has truly embraced modern ideas of whizz-bang tech to make their cars genuinely faster -- not just easier to drive. That's just the beginning. Automotive technology is finally starting to accelerate the way personal computing devices have for the past few decades. New means of propulsion are combining with ever-greater integrated systems and it's easy to see this as leading us toward a generation of cars faster and still more efficient than anything we've yet seen on the roads. Ferrari calls this four-wheeled singularity the "hypercar," and to get an idea of just what that car of the future might look like it invited 50 teams of designers from major universities around the world to compete. Join us as we look at some of the best creations. %Gallery-133210%
AMD spells out the future: heterogeneous computing, Bulldozer and Bobcats galore
Believe it or not, it's just about time for AMD to start thinking about its future. We know -- you're still doing your best to wrap that noodle around Congos and Thubans, but now it's time to wonder how exactly Leo, Llano and Zambezi (to name a few) can fit into your already hectic schedule. At an Analyst Day event this week, the chipmaker removed the wraps on its goals for 2010 and 2011, and while it's still focusing intently on Fusion (better described as heterogeneous computing, where "workloads are divided between the CPU and GPU"), it's the forthcoming platforms that really have us worked up. For starters, AMD is looking into Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) configurations, which "represent the combined capabilities of [practically any] two separate processors." We're also told that the firm may actually introduce its Bulldozer (architecture for mainstream machines) and Bobcat (architecture for low-power, ultrathin PCs) platforms more hastily than similar ones have been rolled out in the past, which demonstrates an effort to really target the consumer market where Intel currently reigns. Frankly, we're jazzed about the possibilities, so hit the links below for a deep dive into what just might be powering your next (or next-next) PC. [Via Digitimes]
AMD announces 6- and 12-core Opterons
AMD may be busy sorting out issues with its quad-core Phenoms and hard at work on "completely different" chip architectures, but that isn't stopping the company from aggressively updating its roadmap, announcing today plans for 6- and 12-core server-grade Opterons. Both the new 6-core chip, codenamed Sao Paulo, and the 12-core unit, codenamed Magny-Cours, are based on a brand-new platform called "Maranello," and slotting in to replace the planned 8-core Barcelona chip, which appears to have been canceled. According to AMD, 12-core chips are easier to manufacture, so it's going to skip over 8-core chips and go straight to the good stuff. That must be news to Intel, which is planning on shipping 8-core Nehalem chips later this year, and will probably then hold the coveted "number-of-cores" crown until AMD releases the 12-core chips in 2010. There's no word on whether any of these chips can make these processor roadmaps comprehensible or even chronological, but we can dream, can't we?[Via TG Daily]
