Is Megahertz Enough?

An IDC White Paper

Sponsored by AMD
Analyst: Shane Rau

INTRODUCTION: WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?

PC buyers usually rely on the clock speed (megahertz) of a PC's
microprocessor to determine their purchasing decision. Because the
industry lacks a simple, universally accepted way to judge perform-
ance, users have become conditioned to substituting clock speed to
gauge how fast their applications will run.
This practice has grown common over many years because:
• The popularization of the PC among general consumers has
w w w. i d c . c o m

increased the available pool of buyers unfamiliar with factors in

PC performance.
• The growth of the direct model of PC purchases has made it
more likely that the actual end user will buy a PC for himself or
herself without the help of a third party familiar with factors that
influence PC performance.
5 S p e e n S t r e e t • Fr a m i n g h a m , M A 0 1 7 0 1 U S A • P h o n e 5 0 8 . 8 7 2 . 8 2 0 0 • Fa x 5 0 8 . 9 3 5 . 4 0 1 5

• The increasing sophistication of the PC exposes the buyer to a

growing number of often arcane technical specifications, from
which clock speed promises a convenient escape.
The clock speed of PC processors has reached over 3,000MHz.
This clock speed is 600 times more than the 5MHz of the first PC
processors. Despite that advancement in clock speed, applications
do not run 600 times faster. The fact that PC performance does not
scale directly with clock speed indicates clock speed does not tell
PC buyers everything they need to know to gauge PC performance.
Since, IDC forecasts, the 135.5 million PCs sold in 2002 will repre-
sent an approximately $172 billion industry, an unreliable perform-
ance measure influencing such a staggering amount of revenue is a
significant problem for both PC buyers and the PC industry.
 IDC OPINION

What does a proper measure of PC performance do? Why

shouldn't PC buyers use processor clock speed exclusively?
IDC believes that a proper measure of performance reflects how
much work a PC does in a given period of time. That requires
knowing how much time the PC worked and how efficiently it
worked. Clock speed alone is not a good measure of PC per-
formance because it does not account for performance efficien-
cy. Efficiency is determined by other factors.
Those factors include the processor architecture and how the
rest of the PC — the graphics controller, main memory, hard
drive, and so on — contributes to the work that gets done. Since
a PC has many components and simultaneous tasks, clock
speed only represents one facet of one component and is not
enough to measure the real performance of the entire system.

WHAT HAPPENED TO CLOCK SPEED?

At the start of the PC industry, PC buyers used clock speed to gauge
performance because different PC processors were on par in effi-
ciency. Part of IBM's decision to use x86 processors for the original
IBM PC was to ensure multiple sources of compatible components.
In ensuring x86 compatibility, processor vendors developed proces-
sors that were similar in their internal designs, or architectures. As a
result, clock speed became the distinguishing characteristic of the
PC processor.
The situation changed, however, in the middle and late 1980s as the
PC began to serve a greater variety of tasks and applications. More
than word processors, PCs became drawing tools, entertainment
appliances, and communication devices. They also began going out-
side the office and into homes, on the road, and into the back office
where only mainframes and mini-computers used to reside. From
the increasingly varied uses and locales evolved a greater number
of user profiles, or usage models, with special requirements for PCs
to fulfill.

Accordingly, processor designs Accordingly, processor designs evolved, but not merely by scaling
evolved, but not merely by scaling the the clock speed. In October 1985, for example, Intel introduced the
clock speed. 80386 processor, which doubled the amount of transistors in the
prior generation's 80286 processor and introduced 32-bit computing
to the PC. These advances were far more beneficial to PC perform-
ance than the advance from the 80286's 12MHz to the 80386's
16MHz. Advances that took place in subsequent designs made the
processor's job easier by integrating small memory caches that
stored the data closer to the processor core. Designers also
improved efficiency by integrating other components, such as float-

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Is Megahertz Enough? –2–

 ing point units, and introduced more efficient techniques of data pro-
cessing, including adding more processing lines (pipelines) and pro-
cessing data and instructions to run the critical tasks first. Designers
also found ways to make processors work better in the context of the
entire system by introducing new instructions (e.g., MMX™ and
3DNow!™ Professional for multimedia) that were optimized for richer
data processing and by giving the processor a faster front-side bus
to the rest of the system.

Due to the different requirements of Due to the different requirements of specific form factors and seg-
specific form factors and segments, ments, different processors from even the same vendor began to
different processors from even the deliver varied performance at the same clock rate. The issue
same vendor began to deliver varied became more apparent when vendors like AMD moved to develop
performance at the same clock rate. their own architectures that, while still compatible with the x86
instruction set, took different approaches to maximize performance.
These approaches included changes that impacted both the proces-
sor and the system (e.g., improved front-side buses).

WHY HAVEN’T WE REPLACED CLOCK SPEED

YET?
IDC believes that, despite the increasingly visible awareness within
the industry of the inadequacies of clock speed, PC buyers continue
to use it because there are no adequate industrywide metrics avail-
able. They like clock speed because it is simple — the perception is
that a higher number means better performance — and universally
understood. For its part, the PC industry struggles against the sheer
difficulty of replacing such an entrenched measurement. One attempt
to supply a new measurement, the PR Rating introduced in 1996,
failed because it never achieved widespread acceptance. At the
same time it lost credibility with PC buyers because it was confusing
and didn't reflect individual usage models, it also lost credibility in the
industry because each vendor assigned the rating itself without third-
party verification and without full disclosure about the details of the
underlying tests. As a result, the PR Rating never had the weight of
the entire industry behind it.
However, we also believe that new forces of change are emerging.
These include:
• Increasing recognition that performance does not scale directly
with clock speed
• Mounting disparity of underlying architectures and clock speeds
—of processors from the same vendor and from different ven-
dors — that defy easy comparison
• Acknowledgement that other components, such as graphics
processors and memory, could have as much impact on overall
PC performance as processor speed
• Rise of other factors in the overall PC purchase decision, such
as cost, features, upgradeability, portability, battery life, and con-
nectivity

–3– Is Megahertz Enough?

 • Within a given architecture, scaling clock speed alone will reach
diminishing returns. Also, measures to counteract transistor cur-
rent leakage, energy consumption, and heat output are increas-
ing the system cost.
• Processors comparable in performance to processors with high-
er clock speeds not valued equally
Processor vendors increasingly reflect Processor vendors increasingly reflect the need for a more balanced
the need for a more balanced approach in the way they convey performance. AMD now names its
approach in the way they convey AMD Athlon™ XP processors with model numbers that indicate the
performance. performance of each processor relative to other AMD Athlon XP
processors and the prior AMD Athlon family of processors. The com-
pany adopted model numbers to discourage megahertz-to-mega-
hertz comparisons. Motorola, supported by its system partner Apple,
has historically tried to balance clock speed and efficiency in its
PowerPC processors through a number of architectural innovations,
including its Altivec technology for multimedia processing and the
use of multiple levels of cache. Even Intel, the leading proponent of
megahertz, has long used architectural innovation (such as
advances in front-side bus speed) to improve the efficiency of its
processors. Intel also is raising public awareness by pouring sub-
stantial resources into its upcoming mobile processor, code-named
Banias, which will operate at lower clock speeds than the current
Pentium® 4 processors. Intel will market the processors on factors
like long battery life, small size, low weight, and wireless connectivi-
ty, features for which clock speed cannot be the sole measure. The
need for a more balanced approach to performance will grow as
future processor and system architectures continue to diverge. For
example, Transmeta's upcoming 256-bit VLIW processor, code-
named Astro, will break further away from the industry's standard
processor architecture and the AMD Athlon™ 64 processor, with an
integrated memory controller, will innovate further away from the
industry's standard partitioning.

CHALLENGES TO INDUSTRY
Changing this situation will be a While the PC industry's products have evolved, its performance
significant challenge for the industry measures have not. As a result, the industry has lost the ability to
because the standards are very high. communicate product performance effectively. Changing this situa-
tion will be a significant challenge for the industry because the stan-
dards are very high. IDC believes that the PC industry owes buyers
a new measure that is:
• System based. PC performance is about the whole system of
interdependent components, not just the processor.
• Simple. Any new measure must be as easy to understand as
clock speed.
• Flexible. Novices should be able to look at just one or a few
numbers. Advanced users, however, should be able to go deep-
er into their research on PC performance, should they choose.
• Tailored to usage models. In order to be useful and relevant to
buyers, a measure must reflect how a PC will be used.

Is Megahertz Enough? –4–

 • Built around clock speed and efficiency for delivered application
performance. Processor and system architectures reflect a
series of different design decisions. Designers will continue to
rely on both factors to improve application performance.
• Consistent. While underlying tests will evolve to enhance the
measure's ability to convey performance, the actual measure
presented to PC buyers must remain consistent.
• Repeatable. Allowing for margin of error, the underlying tests run
on a PC must give the same or similar results when run again
independent of who is doing the testing.
• Transparent. In order to be credible, the underlying tests and the
testing methodology must be open to scrutiny.
• Given broad industry support. PC buyers should only accept a
single, unified method. It's not acceptable to have competing
methods from multiple sources and different backers in each
camp.
• Administered by a credible, independent party. All parties
involved must trust that all products are being measured fairly
and impartially.
• Systematically updated. In order to evolve with changing usage
models and configurations, the measure would need to be updat-
ed accordingly.

CHALLENGES TO BUYERS
When lacking a true measure of PC PC buyers of all kinds must insist on industry action. When buying a
performance, all PC buyers should ask PC, consumers should demand an indicator of how a certain PC is
prodding questions: What is clock suitable to run their applications and meets their individual needs. To
speed not telling me about the ensure a higher return on investment, corporate and commercial
processor's and the system's buyers should insist that their requests-for-proposals account for
performance? Isn't good PC more than frequency when evaluating performance. When lacking a
performance more than just a matter of true measure of PC performance, all PC buyers should ask prodding
the processor? With only clock speed questions: What is clock speed not telling me about the processor's
to go on, how am I supposed to gauge and the system's performance? Isn't good PC performance more
how fast my applications will run? than just a matter of the processor? With only clock speed to go on,
how am I supposed to gauge how fast my applications will run?

CONCLUSION
IDC believes that tackling these challenges will benefit the industry
by allowing vendors and users to segment the market and help it
grow in the future. Traditional scaling is not enough and will not help
the industry prosper. Measurements that judge PC performance
based on more than traditional scaling will encourage more diverse
ways of achieving higher performance. They will also acknowledge
that good performance can be many things, such as fast applica-
tions, but also long battery life and high frame rate. In the meantime,
don't base your buying decision on megahertz alone and, whenever
possible, rely on industry benchmarks that will give you a more accu-
rate picture of the performance of the entire system.

–5– Is Megahertz Enough?

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