NASCAR's Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C.

AMD to power NASCAR

Microprocessing company to aid research and development

From News Release -- DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Accurately freezing the field at 190 mph -- as NASCAR did last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway to determine the race winner -- is obviously of critical importance to NASCAR.

Monday morning is just as important, as the sanctioning body must sort through and make sense of a mountain of car performance data captured on each race car four times a second during every lap of every race.

Credit: Contributed photo

To help improve its ability to time and score races and power its Research and Development Center in Concord, NC, NASCAR has partnered with AMD, a leader in microprocessing technology.

Through a unique relationship making AMD the Official Technology Partner of NASCAR, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company will play a critical role in helping NASCAR improve competition on the racetrack and enhance the safety of its participants.

"Technology is as critical to NASCAR as fuel, tires and communications. AMD will help NASCAR to run faster, smarter and safer," said Gustavo Arenas, corporate vice president, Pan-Americas Region, AMD. "We are excited about maximizing the power of the NASCAR brand with our customers and partners."

AMD will enhance NASCAR's official timing and scoring systems through the use of AMD64 processor-powered servers by creating mobile timing-and-scoring command centers capable of processing more than a half million data points per race. These mobile units will travel to each Nextel Cup, Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series event.

"With Nextel as title sponsor of NASCAR's premier series, and AMD as our Official Technology Partner, we will benefit from extraordinary technology companies helping lead us into the future," said George Pyne, chief operating officer, NASCAR. "AMD, a global technology leader in high-performance computing, will help our sport run smarter, safer and more efficiently."

This new agreement is expected to have a major impact on the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, N.C., a state-of-the-art-facility that focuses on improving safety, competition and cost-saving strategies. AMD64 technology, the gold standard of 64-bit computing, will help provide NASCAR better processing power for data collection and analysis in studying crashes and performing wind tunnel analysis.

"Microchip companies have not traditionally been a big sponsor in sports. This relationship says a lot about where the sport is and where we are going," said Steve Phelps, NASCAR's Vice President of Corporate Marketing. "But beyond that, if we can be better and smarter in timing and scoring, and if AMD can help continue our progress in safety, those are huge wins for the sport."

Capturing the spirit of NASCAR, two AMD64 processor-powered, NASCAR-branded PCs from ZT Group are now available in North American retail stores including CompUSA, and are expected to be available through QVC Home Shopping network next month.

The NASCAR notebook computer is powered by AMD Turion? 64 mobile technology, combining AMD64 performance with true mobility. In addition, award-winning AMD Athlon? 64 technology is available in a NASCAR-branded desktop PC.