When it comes to processing power... AMD says consumers are confused. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. Advanced Micro Devices is Intel's main rival when it comes to PC processors... .and its Athlon line of chips has won a lot of praise. AMD's problem has been in trying to convey to consumers... that clock speeds don't tell the whole story when it comes to performance... ..

"Our products, if you look at the model 15 00 or the model 1600 or the model 1700 or the model 1800, those products would outperform Pentium 4 processors at 1.5 gigahertz all the way to 1.8 gigahertz."

AMD marketing manager Mark Bode. So what AMD is doing is renaming its new line of processors. The top of the line is the 1800 Plus Athlon XP. The XP is designed to tie into the release of Windows XP... .and the 1800 Plus is supposed to convey that the 1.5 gigahertz can outperform a 1.8 gigahertz Pentium 4... .

"AMD is also working on a strategic initiative with other industry leaders to develop a reliable processor performance metric that PC users can trust."

AMD thinks that will level its playing field with Intel... which has announced that it will use a new process to build processors that will clock in at up to 20 gigahertz within six years. AMD... says Bode... will keep pace...

"I expect that AMD will remain competitive in the marketplace in terms of performance... in terms of whatever has to be delivered."

The company hopes to have the new comparative measurement system available for consumers... .next year. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.