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Intel plans to dispel the megahertz myth which served so well

Posted 03/13/2004 @ 11:59 AM
by Ken "Caesar" Fisher

Could it be that the megahertz myth is really about to die? The phrase megahertz myth points, of course, to the long standing awareness that mere clock ratings do not convey comparative performance between CPU architectures. The myth was commonly cited as a detriment to competition by Apple, whose offerings have trailed Intel in overall clock speed for years. In more recent years we've heard a bit of rumbling about this from AMD, too. Indeed, AMD even went so far as to mount the Soap Box and wax philosophical about the matter. But fate would have it that Intel, the market leader, would rise (or some might say shrink) to the task. Why? We spotted it in the Fall of 2002: their mobile processor line confuses the heck out of customers.

The chip giant is expected to begin the practice with the launch of its latest Pentium M processor, dubbed Dothan, which is due in the second quarter. Pentium 4 and Celeron chips will also get model numbers, as Intel aims to get the system in place by summer, the source said. Under the model number system, processors will be given numbers to describe their performance, in addition to being described as running at 2GHz or another speed.

Another "why" could be the fact that Intel is feeling heat like never before. While the company has struggled to climb out of its 3 GHz slump, the Athlon 64 and Opteron are gaining market recognition, and many still expect to see the PowerPC 970 hit 3 GHz by the Fall. Still, at this stage I think it's safe to say that Intel's Pentium M is near and dear to the company, and that this is the central impetus behind this move. The reasons should be obvious: the architecture in question is looking to have better potential over the long haul than Intel's NetBurst architecture in the Pentium 4. One can't discount the opportunity for clarity, either: with more than a half-dozen products in their CPU line, several of which are nearly identical to one another, this could help to company map its own product line more clearly for the consumer. One thing is for certain, however: you won't see a score along the lines of 2800+ (aka, AMD's scheme).

One very interesting aspect of this development will be watching how Intel deals with their own speed steps. If the company has to back off megahertz as a crutch for it's products, it's going to have to develop a performance rating system that "markets" their steps as being considerable. Many consumers think that there is a considerable difference between, say, a 2.4 GHz P4 and a 2.6 GHz P4 (200MHz wow!! wow!!). If Intel wishes to keep such granularity, the company may need to develop a scheme that artificially expresses a deeper gap between these two CPUs than there actually is. But then there's also the question of power consumption, too, a question that should be central to any scheme aimed at promoting the Pentium M... be it in laptops (for now), or desktops later.

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