New Electric Sports Car has IIGS heart!

[pubpc1@library.ucla.edu]

If you haven't seen the commercials yet, ask someone in California
or Arizona to tape it for you.  GM's EV1 is out!  This is the first
mass production advanced design electric car.  Shaped like a teardrop
for maximum aerodynamics, this vehicle generates the equivalent of
139 horsepowers and can go from zero to 60mph in 9 seconds.  It has
a range of 79 miles per charge and can be recharged in 3 hours.

The "propulsion system," as GM calls it, is efficient enough that
even though powerplants must convert petroleum to electricity and
the car converts the electricity to kinetic energy, the overall waste
is less than a traditional car which has a simpler one step conversion.
That's because a typical internal combustion engine is a model of
inefficiency, wasting more than 85% of the energy in gasoline as heat
while a powerplant loses only around 65%.

Rumor has it, the EV1's control systems and displays include a bank
of 65816 microcontrollers.  If this is true, then GM's new baby has
a piece of our favorite computer inside.  The same microprocessor
chip is used in Apple IIGS computers.

I've been looking at GM's web site to try to verify the story. Check
out www.gm.com for more information.  Western Design Center may also
prove helpful.

-Scott G.