Michigan Company Develops In-Wheel Electric Motor

(Source: cleanfuelconnectionnews.com)

Pre-production starts in early 2013 while full commercial production is set to begin in early 2014

A Michigan technology company has developed what could possibly be a new feature for electric vehicles (EVs) -- in-wheel electric motors.

Protean Electric, a Michigan-based tech company, is on its way to producing compact wheels for EVs that have electric motors inside of them instead of using conventional systems, which utilize larger motors to power a transmission or axles in order to move the wheels.

The in-wheel motors weigh 68 pounds and are 18 inches in diameter. They offer 110 HP and 598 lb-ft of torque. There is also a 24-inch version for more power.

The motors' anatomy consists of a permanent magnet at the center and the rotor on the outside for easy attachment to the wheels. Power electronics and inverters are located between these two, four to eight submotors make up the complete package. Typically, two to four of these complete motors are used on a vehicle.

The wheels can be used on either all-electric vehicles or hybrid plug-in vehicles. They are compact, lightweight wheels that can be used for retrofitting existing vehicles and for newly designed EVs as well.

Protean Electric received funding for the latest EV wheels from Chinese investor GSR Partners in the sum of $84 million. The wheels will be made in-house for now, but the company plans to eventually license the technology to larger manufacturers so they can be produced in higher numbers.

The motors will be built in a manufacturing center in Liyang, China, where the plan is to produce 50,000 motors per year. Pre-production starts in early 2013, while full commercial production is set to begin in early 2014.

Back in 2008, Michelin developed what it called the Active Wheel, which housed the motor, brake, and suspension inside the wheel.

Source: Protean Electric

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Microsoft Reports First Loss, Looks Ahead to Windows 8/Surface Launches

The tech giant reported a net loss of $492 million (6 cents per share) for the quarter ended June 30, 2012

For the first time since it went public in 1986 Microsoft posted a quarterly loss, but the company managed to do better than Wall Street expected.

The tech giant reported a net loss of $492 million (6 cents per share) for the quarter ended June 30, 2012. Microsoft posted a profit of $5.87 billion (69 cents per share) the same time a year ago.

The loss was expected, however, because of the $6.2 billion write-down of its 2007 acquisition of aQuantive, an online advertisement company. Microsoft also took a hit because of $540 million in deferred revenue from a Windows 8 upgrade.

Despite posting its first loss since going public, Microsoft reported a revenue increase of 4 percent to $18 billion. This was mainly due to the strong growth in its Office sector, but at the same time, this number was slightly below analyst expectations. Microsoft suffered from slow computer sales that featured the Windows OS, but with Windows 8 on the horizon, people may be waiting for its release before buying a new Windows-packed computer.

Microsoft said it earned a total of 67 cents per share during the quarter, excluding the write-down but including the deferred revenue. Wall Street analysts expected a profit of 62 cents per share.

Microsoft has a lot to look forward to with Windows 8 being released on October 26, and its first tablet entry, "Surface," coming soon after that.

"We delivered record fourth quarter and annual revenue, and we're fast approaching the most exciting launch season in Microsoft history," said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO. "Over the coming year, we'll release the next versions of Windows, Office, Windows Server, Windows Phone and many other products and services that will drive our business forward and provide unprecedented opportunity to our customers and partners."

Looking ahead, Microsoft predicts a fiscal year 2013 operating expense of $30.3 billion to $30.9 billion.


Sources: Microsoft, The Wall Street Journal

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Windows 8 to Arrive October 26

Both the upgrade and new PC versions will be available on this date

Hold onto your shorts, Microsoft fans -- Windows 8 has an official release date, and it's October 26. 

Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky announced the fall launch date today at the tech giant's annual sales meeting. Both the upgrade and new PC versions will be available on this date. 

Windows 8 has been a long time coming. Its development began before Windows 7 even shipped in 2009, but the operating system was officially unveiled on June 1, 2011. 

Later, in September 2011, Microsoft revealed the Windows Developer Preview for building Metro style UI applications during the BUILD conference. In February 2012, the Windows 8 Consumer Preview was finally released, and in May, the Windows 8 Release Preview was unleashed. 

A prominent feature of Windows 8 is the new Metro style user interface, which offers a tile-based Start screen where each tile represents an application. The colorful, more playful UI has received mixed reviews from many who say it's either a refreshing change or a disgrace to the Windows name. 

Microsoft plans to place Windows 8 on many devices from PCs to Windows Phone to its upcoming tablet entry called Surface. The new tablet is set to feature a 10.6-inch screen, a 3 mm case that doubles as a thin keyboard, pen-input technology called digital ink, a 9.3 mm frame, and Wi-Fi only at launch. There will be two versions of the Surface tablet: the Windows RT model with a Tegra 3 processor and 32/64 GB SSD options, and the Windows 8 Pro model with Intel's Core i5 Ivy Bridge processors and 64/128 GB SSD options. 

It was announced last week that Microsoft was planning an October release, but now, those eagerly awaiting a new Windows 8 machine can rest assure that an exact day is set. 

Source: Windows Blog

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IN WIN GreenMe 650W Power Supply

Going Green With Your PSU and In Win

As voices expressing concern regarding the future state of the planet and the protection of the environment are rising, so does the demand for environmentally friendly products. Most manufacturers have at least one “environment friendly” series in their products line-up. Today we are having a look at such a “green” product from In Win, the renowned power supplies manufacturer, a power supply from the series baptized “GreenMe”.

In Win’s approach of an environmentally friendly power supply differs from that of most other manufacturers. Instead of designing an expensive product and using the most exotic layout and parts, In Win went with a rather simple 80Plus Bronze certified design which currently retails for $69.99 shipped after rebate. The company also advertises that for every single GreenMe series unit sold, they will be donating one US dollar to the WWF (World Widelife Fund) for the protection of the environment.

IN WIN GreenMe 650 PSU Features:

• Active Power Factor Correction
• High Efficiency Voltage Transfer Technology, up to 85% (80Plus Bronze)
• Smart temperature and load controlled 120mm double ball-bearing fan for quiet operation
• Supports the latest Intel ATX 12V V2.31 & EPS 2.92 Versions 
• Mesh sleeve on all cables for easier cable routing and better ventilation 
• Patented 4-pin Molex Easy-Swap Connectors
• Eco-Design of Energy-using Products Directive 
• ERP Lot 6 Compliant for low power usage at standby mode 
• Multi-Protection Function (OVP,OPP,UVP,SCP,OCP) 
• Continuous output rated at a demanding 45°C ambient temperature 
• Four 12V rails for efficient power distribution 
• Universal A/C Input

Let's move on to the next page where we will unbox the review sample! Source: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1981/1/

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Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition - What is it?

Over six months ago AMD released the AMD Radeon HD 7900 series with the introduction of the Radeon HD 7970 'Tahiti' graphics card. This card became the flagship video card for AMD and has proven itself to winner thanks to having great performance due to the GCN architecture, a ton of overclocking headroom and awesome new power saving features like AMD ZeroCore Power. We've reviewed a number of AMD Radeon HD 7900 series cards over the past few months and all did very well in our testing. AMD had the must have gaming graphics card from December 2011 till March 2012. It was in March that NVIDIA launched the GeForce GTX 680 'Kelper' graphics card and then began rolling out the rest of the competitive GeForce 600 series cards. What was AMD going to do next?

We were thinking the same thing until last month. During the AMD Fusion Developer Summit 2012 we were invited to a video card press member update. It was in this meeting that we found out that the AMD Radeon HD 7970 was turning 6 months old! The Radeon HD 7970 was released back in December 2011, so it was already 6 months old and AMD commissioned a cake saying happy half birthday to Tahiti!

 It was between bites of cake that we learned AMD was planning on releasing a successor the AMD Radeon HD 7970, the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition.

At first glance the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition (XT2) video card looks identical to the Radeon HD 7970 (XT1), but fear not it is pretty much the same card. AMD has basically just tweaked what is under the hood a bit and is releasing a new card. Most of the changes have been done in the vBIOS, but there are also a few minor component changes as well. AMD did not want to discuss what component changes were done, but assured us 100% that there were physical changes done and not just all software changes.

The AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition runs faster than the original version and has a new feature called boost. The AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition has a standard 1000MHz core clock speed and then can be dynamically boosted to 1050MHz when the headroom is available. The video card monitors the power draw and temperatures and then can change the GPU frequency and voltage when needed. This allows the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition to go up to 1050MHz on the core clock. The memory clock speed has been increased to 1500MHz and it does not dynamically change. The AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz edition has better accuracy when it comes to power estimation and we think the hardware changes on the card were for better monitoring.

Since AMD PowerTune Technology with Boost is brand new we figured that we would include the above slide to show you how Boost works and what the Boost P-state is.

Many of our readers might have figured out by now that the Radeon HD 7970 GHz is more or less a factory overclocked Radeon HD 7970. The new vBIOS raises the default clock speed from 1000MHz (1050MHz w/ Boost) from 925MHz and the memory clock to 6GHz from 5.5GHz. The voltage was also increased from 1.175V to 1.240V. All these changes are done in the vBIOS and an owner of the original Radeon HD 7970 card can flash their card to the 7970 GHz Edition BIOS and get basically the same thing for free. Not all cards will be able to reach these levels, but seeing how the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz edition costs $499 and the Radeon HD 7970 costs $429 it might be worth trying out in order to save $70.

The official AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition BIOS was released here, so current 7970 owners are in luck if they own a reference card that can handle these new speeds. If the vBIOS flash works they should be able to attain the same performance levels as the Radeon HD 7970 GHz card. Not all AMD Radeon HD 7970 cards use the reference PCB and design, so be careful when flashing any card and understand that you are taking a risk. If you don't want to risk it then you should pay the extra $70 and just get the 7970 GHz Edition that is guaranteed to work!

Since the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition video card is physically the same as the original we'll skip straight to benchmarking now. If you'd like to learn more about the card design you can reference the original review.

Source: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1979/1/

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Next-Gen iPhone to Have Thinner Screen with In-Cell Technology

This will cut about half a millimeter of screen thickness from the iPhone's current 9.3-millimeter thick display

It seems "the thinner, the better" is the latest trend for smartphones and tablets, and now, Apple is applying this rule to its next-generation iPhone by giving it a thinner screen.


According to sources close to the matter, Apple's screen for its next iPhone will use in-cell technology developed by Sharp Corp., LG Display Co., and Japan Display Inc. In-cell technology means that touch sensors are placed within the LCD, eliminating the extra touchscreen layer that usually accompanies the LCD. This will cut about half a millimeter of screen thickness from the iPhone's current 9.3-millimeter thick total frame.

There's a good and a bad side to this type of technology. The good news is that Apple can cuts costs by eliminating that extra layer, which would have needed to come from another supplier. Also, a thinner screen means more room elsewhere on the device, like for a larger battery.

The bad news, however, is that these types of screens are difficult for suppliers to make. They're also very time consuming, meaning mass-producing them by certain deadlines could potentially be an issue.

Other little news bits have been trickling out regarding new iPhone features, such as the larger 4-inch screen and the centered placement of the FaceTime camera.

Apple's next-generation iPhone will be released sometime this fall.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303754904577532121136436182.html

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