World's Fastest

AMD has taken the wraps of the Radeon HD 7970 graphics card. Billed as the world's fastest single GPU graphics card and the only GPU based on 28nm production technology, the new arrival pushes AMD ahead of NVIDIA in terms of miniaturization. The HD 7970 uses a new Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture that AMD says results in a 150 percent performance/sq mm jump over the previous 40nm-based generation, is compatible with PCI Express 3.0 and features 3GB of GDDR5 memory and 925MHz engine clock. It also supports Direct3D 11.1 to be released with Windows 8. Read More

An international team is claiming a data transfer record that puts any home broadband connection to shame. At last month’s SuperComputing 2011 (SC11) conference in Seattle, researchers reached transfer rates of 98 gigabits per second (Gbps) between the University of Victoria Computing Centre located in Victoria, British Columbia, and the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. Coupled with a simultaneous data rate of 88 Gbps in the opposite direction the team reached a two-way data rate of 186 Gbps to break their own previous peak-rate record of 119 Gbps set in 2009. Read More

German speed merchant Brabus has unveiled its latest performance vehicle - the Brabus 800 Coupe. Based on the Mercedes-Benz CL600, the 800 make-over takes the already impressive 5.5 liter V12 previously developed for the SV12 R Biturbo 800 to an eye-popping 788 hp (588kW) with 1047 ft.lbs (1420Nm) of torque. Read More

The Traxxas XO-1 is an all-wheel-drive electric car with a claimed top speed of over 100 mph (161 km/h). Not impressed? Oh yeah, it's also only 27 inches (68.6 cm) long, and weighs 10.3 pounds (4.67 kg) with batteries. The one-seventh scale radio-controlled model is billed as "the world's fastest ready-to-race radio-controlled supercar." This thing clearly isn't designed for use on the living room floor ... or on neighborhood roads. Read More

The scooter and motorcycle are morphing into a new class of two-wheeled machine, with the power, acceleration, braking and roadholding of the motorcycle, and carrying capacity, weather protection, comfort, safety and ease-of-use of the scooter. The SRV 850 is Aprilia's performance version of the Gilera GP800, which was already the world's fastest and most powerful scooter. It is now a red-blooded Italian V-twin sports bike with a CVT (no gears) and the acceleration to smoke a Bugatti Veyron at legal speeds. With Honda's Integra due to be unveiled in Tokyo, and new entries from BMW, the superscooter class is burgeoning in response to the need for this new class of super commuter. Read More

Brigham Young University (BYU) students are celebrating after setting a new land speed record for an electric car in the “E1” (under 1,100 lbs/499 kg) class. The record of 155.8 mph (250.7 km/h) set by the “Electric Blue” streamliner at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah was averaged over the two required qualifying runs, one of which saw the car reach a speed of 175 mph (281.6 km/h). The record marks the end of a seven year quest by BYU students led by Perry Carter who, having just retired as an associate professor, gets to bow out on top. Read More

Records may come and go but, aside from grabbing headlines, they're a way of benchmarking the progress of new technologies. In the automotive world this means hybrid drivetrains and we've seen a number of new record attempts in recent times - usually related to fuel economy as with the Kia Optima Drive. The latest comes from Nissan, whose Infiniti luxury division is claiming the world's fastest accelerating full hybrid vehicle in the form of the Infiniti M Hybrid. The M Hybrid has covered the standing quarter mile (400 m) in an average time of 13.9031 seconds - putting it on par with a Lamborghini Countach .... a 1982 Lamborghini Countach that is. Read More

Although Honda’s ASIMO has been running around at speeds of up to 6 km/h (3.7 mph) since 2004, his style is more of a fast sneak than a true running action. Getting bipedal robot like ASIMO to run like a human is no easy feat - as C-3PO is sure to attest – but researchers in a University of Michigan (U-M) lab have done just that with a bipedal robot called MABEL. The researchers believe that MABEL, which can reach a peak pace of 10.9 km/h (6.8 mph), is the world’s fastest bipedal robot with knees. Read More

It wasn't so long ago that speed junkies were foaming at the mouth at the read/write performance offered by Intel's 510 series of SSD storage solutions. Now Smart has announced that it's managed to squeeze up to 1.6TB of solid state memory into the 2.5-inch form factor Optimus drive and leave the competition standing with a sequential read of up to 1GB/s, and write of 500MB/s. Read More