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"  Fast as Lightning By Ben Stewart The electric car is dead--those bog-slow, glorified golf carts of old, that is. Long live the Tesla Roadster, the first production high-performance electric car. The numbers are hard to believe: 0 to 60 mph in around 4 seconds, topping out at 130 mph, and up to 250 miles per charge. But after riding shotgun in a prototype Roadster, we&amp;#039;re believers. It&amp;#039;s quick. Very quick. The 185-kilowatt electric induction motor has a relentless, locomotive-like thrust. The groundbreaking range comes courtesy of regenerative braking and a battalion of 6831 lithium-ion cells. &amp;quot;The battery pack took 40 percent of the engineering for this car,&amp;quot; says Tesla CEO Martin Eberhard. Reports of exploding lithium-ions have raised concerns about battery safety, and Tesla has taken precautions. Each cell is isolated to prevent a chain reaction of failures. And if the on-board computer detects a problem, such as moisture in the pack or a rapid deceleration caused by a crash, it cuts the main power supply and sends an alert to the instrument panel. Whether the car actually sells almost doesn&amp;#039;t matter--its plug-in technology is a wakeup call for automakers. The Roadster will be available next summer for $89,000 to $100,000. Ultimately, Tesla plans to release a less expensive, four-door electric car. ROADSTER STATS Charge Time It takes about 3.5 hours to charge the Roadster using an electrician-installed home kit. GM&amp;#039;s defunct EV1 electric car took all night to charge. Carbon Body The Roadster&amp;#039;s body is composed of lightweight -carbon fiber. At press time, initial crash tests were under way. Lotus Lineage Assembled at the Lotus plant in Hethel, England, the Roadster shares components with the Lotus Elise, but is 6.5 in. longer and 31 percent more aerodynamic. TEAM PLAYER The PlayStation 3&amp;#039;s multitasking processor might change computing forever. Or maybe it&amp;#039;ll just help you kill more monsters. By Seth Fletcher When Sony announced that its PlayStation 3 would cost at least $500, gamers, stockholders and industry analysts were floored. They demanded to know how a game console could possibly be so expensive. One reason is something called Cell, a new kind of processor that took IBM, Sony and Toshiba five years and $400 million to build. For now, it&amp;#039;s best known as the brains behind the PS3. But all that time and money wasn&amp;#039;t spent just to make Sonic the Hedgehog spikier than ever. The chip&amp;#039;s designers are betting that Cell will be the blueprint for the next generation of microprocessors. Cell&amp;#039;s name comes from PlayStation inventor Ken Kutaragi, who envisioned a computer that acted like a biological organism, with various &amp;quot;cells&amp;quot; performing specialized functions, while coordinating with the rest of the system. The Cell chip that runs the PS3 consists of one Power Architecture processor, similar to what&amp;#039;s found in many laptops, and eight coprocessors known as synergistic processing elements (SPEs). &amp;quot;The Power processor typically runs the operating system,&amp;quot; says Peter Hofstee, IBM&amp;#039;s chief architect on the Cell project. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s the director of the orchestra of SPEs.&amp;quot; To avoid data bottlenecks--which can noticeably slow game play, especially when lots of objects appear onscreen--the computing labor is divided among the SPEs (see illustration). Working in concert, a Cell chip can achieve processing speeds around 10 times faster than those of a standard PC. Then again, most PCs aren&amp;#039;t running enough simultaneous operations to need a nine-core processor. Cell isn&amp;#039;t optimized to run spreadsheets and databases, and is only likely to become standard architecture if PC workloads become more media intensive. So while this $400 million experiment might bring smoother game play and breathtaking layered graphics to video games, Cell&amp;#039;s larger impact is hard to predict. IBM is launching a series of powerful Cell-based computer servers, and German researchers are using Cell chips to produce a real-time 3D model of a beating human heart. Cell technology is also a perfect fit for hi-def devices, and could appear in HDTVs in the near future. SPORTING CHANCE A revolution in cheap, easy-to-fly aircraft has sputtered on the runway for years. Now, one of the biggest companies in aviation is set to lead the way. By Jeff Wise When the Federal Aviation Administration announced its sport pilot initiative in 2004, small-plane enthusiasts rejoiced. It meant prospective pilots could earn their wings in much less time, and manufacturers would once again be empowered to build inexpensive Light-Sport Aircraft (LSA). Though 12 models hit the market in the first year, all were built by small or relatively unknown companies. Few sold, and LSAs are rarely seen at America&amp;#039;s small airports. That might soon change. Cessna, the venerable 79-year-old aircraft manufacturer, has rolled out its own LSA prototype. It resembles a sleeker version of Cessna&amp;#039;s 152 training aircraft, retaining the single prop and side-by-side seating for two, yet adding features such as skylights and wheel pants. The aircraft&amp;#039;s design isn&amp;#039;t revolutionary, but the price might be right. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;re trying to figure out how to get it south of $100,000,&amp;quot; says Cessna chief executive officer Jack Pelton. If the plane does go into production (Cessna will announce a decision early next year), Pelton expects to sell it to both training fleets and recreational fliers. After the rapturous reception at the prototype&amp;#039;s debut, the odds of a green light are looking good. If that happens, it would lend a gold seal of approval to the entire LSA category. For more on LSAs, including a firsthand account of what it takes to get a sport pilot license, click here. WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE STREET Concrete sidewalks aren&amp;#039;t as tough as you think. Freezing temperatures can crack them, and burrowing tree roots can buckle whole slabs, often requiring the tree&amp;#039;s removal. So, in more than 60 cities around the country a new product is hitting the street. Made from recycled tires with a polyurethane binder, Rubbersidewalks are more expensive than concrete, but tougher and less susceptible to root damage. Aside from being flexible, the 2 x 2.5-ft. panels (left) allow light and oxygen to pass through their seams and into the ground below, which actually slows root growth. And if recycling tires and saving trees isn&amp;#039;t enough of an incentive, the panels are also easier on pedestrians&amp;#039; joints. ORBITAL ADVERTISING By Alex Hutchinson Assuming space tourism works out as well as a growing fleet of entrepreneurs hopes, a zero-g vacation could still cost you $200,000 and up. But for $295 you can launch a photo of yourself--or some other keepsake--into space on Bigelow Aerospace&amp;#039;s Genesis II spacecraft, due for launch early next year. Digital photos of the orbiting craft&amp;#039;s interior will appear online. The company plans to sell space for corporate advertisements as well, though exact details haven&amp;#039;t been announced. Genesis II&amp;#039;s primary mission is to continue research on Bigelow&amp;#039;s concept for a space hotel with inflatable walls. The company&amp;#039;s first test craft, Genesis I, inflated to 8 x 16 ft. in July while orbiting 350 miles above Earth, with an interior temperature of about 79 F. The craft has beamed back several shots from its 13 cameras, including images of a logo-covered interior (some logos were blurred to avoid copyright issues). Nine more test craft are planned, with the hotel launching sometime after 2010. Powered player: The Roadster electric sports car recharging at Tesla&amp;#039;s research facility in San Carlos, Calif. PHOTOGRAPH BY NATHAN PERKEL. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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