Intel moves to a non ghz based ratings system

Thanks to xstaindx for posting this here. The ratings, although to the "untrained" eye initially somewhat confusing, will ultimatly make it easier for non-techies to understand why a Pentium M 1.6 Ghz is say faster than a Mobile Pentium 4 2.6 ghz.

"Not so long ago we talked about Intel's plans concerning the introduction of the processor rating. Intel has finally realized the necessity to offer a new metrics for its CPUs marking, because the core clock frequency doesn't give a clear idea of the processor performance any more. In fact, this tendency has existed for quite a while now. Today Intel offers a few different desktop and notebook processor families: Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, Pentium 4, Pentium M and Celeron. And if you can tell the CPU performance from its working core frequency within a single family, then comparing processors from different families makes absolutely no sense. Intel's marketing team, however, faces the following problems more and more often: it is really hard to explain to an unsophisticated user why a notebook based on Pentium M 1.6GHz is more preferable than a notebook based on Mobile Pentium 4 2.4GHz. Moreover, there are "tricky things" even within a single family sometimes. For example, there are a few Pentium 4 2.4GHz modifications in the today's market, which differ from one another by the bus frequency and L2 cache size, which surely affects their performance. So, introducing a unified rating is quite a logical move in this case.

We have also mentioned in our news the major principles that the new Intel rating would be based on. Intel's rating system is going to be very similar to Opteron marking system. Or even to BMW classification, because there will be three series:"

* High End - 7XX;

* Middle End - 5XX;

* Low End - 3XX.

View: Xbit Labs Story