Tarsus says Intel model numbers will more accurately indicate overall processor performance

For some time now the processor market has been seeing a change in focus, with the volume of level-2 cache and front-side bus speed making as significant a contribution to the overall performance of a processor, as the processor clock speed has made in the past.

"Based on this industry trend, Intel has found that it has become misleading to refer to a processor by its clock speed alone. In the same right, a processor`s performance is not solely dependant on the volume of level-2 cache it sports, or the front-side bus speed at which it operates," says Jason McMillan, HP PSG Product Manager at Tarsus Technologies.

"The only solution to this quandary was to move away from the conventional naming methodology and towards one that referred to processors based on a model number, which will denote performance based on the higher the model number is," McMillan continues.

According to McMillan, this trend has already been rolled through into the notebook market, and will follow before the end of the year in the desktop space.

"The new naming convention will see for example, what was previously known as the Intel Pentium M 2GHz processor, now becoming known as the Intel Pentium M processor 755. Similarly, the Intel Pentium 4 processor supporting Hyper-Threading technology 3.40GHz, will become known as the Intel Pentium 4 Processor 500 supporting Hyper-Threading technology," explains McMillan.

"I must stress that these are just general examples of the future naming convention and will not necessarily be the final product numbers for these processors," McMillan says.

"We believe this change in naming convention will be more beneficial to the end-user as well as the reseller, since it will give a more accurate indication of the overall performance a processor is capable of delivering, rather than simply the clock speed, which doesn`t take any of Intel`s other technological advancements into account," McMillan concludes.