Steam engine

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.

Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be used. The ideal thermodynamic cycle used to analyze this process is called the Rankine cycle. In the cycle, water is heated and transforms into steam within a boiler operating at a high pressure. When expanded through pistons or turbines, mechanical work is done. The reduced-pressure steam is then condensed and pumped back into the boiler.

In general usage, the term steam engine can refer to either the integrated steam plants (including boilers etc.) such as railway steam locomotives and portable engines, or may refer to the piston or turbine machinery alone, as in the beam engine and stationary steam engine. Specialized devices such as steam hammers and steam pile drivers are dependent on the steam pressure supplied from a separate boiler.

Steam machine (disambiguation)

Steam machine may refer to:

Steam Machine (hardware platform)

Steam Machine, also known as Steam Box during development, is a line of pre-built gaming computers designed to operate to minimum specifications set by Valve Corporation to run its Linux-based operating system SteamOS and numerous games within the Steam client. Several computer hardware vendors have engaged with Valve to develop their own versions of Steam Machines to offer to retail, offering additional options atop Valve's requirements such as dual-booting options with Microsoft Windows, and the ability to upgrade the computer in the future.

To support the Steam Machine and the SteamOS, Valve developed and released its own hardware. Its Steam Controller is a highly customizable game controller with touchpad-based haptic feedback that integrates with Steam or SteamOS that can be used to control SteamOS and most games, including those that normally require keyboard-and-mouse controls. The Steam Link device allows consumers with existing computers with Steam to stream content directly from those computers to a television and play directly there.