Instead of measuring PC central processing units by the megahertz of clock speeds--as has been the industry's practice for nearly two decades--AMD today said it was launching an initiative to develop a new reliable metric to judge CPU performance in standard personal computer applications.

AMD maintains that the MHz-only benchmark puts its Athlon CPU series at a disadvantage in the marketplace next to competing PC processors--in particular Intel Corp.'s Pentium 4 and other microprocessors. The clock speed of PC processors has become a key factor in the price tag of personal computers, making the faster CPU more profitable.

Locked in a CPU price war with Intel, AMD warned investors on Friday that it would post lower-than-expected revenues and a pro-forma net loss of $90-to-$110 million for the third quarter. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chip company pointed the figure of blame at the intense price war now underway with rival Intel (see Oct. 5 story).

Looking to change the rules of the game, AMD proposed an effort to set new standards for measuring PC processor power--called the "True Performance Initiative," or TPI.

During the Athlon XP rollout in San Francisco today, AMD said it was attempting to assist PC processor customers (PC system designers) to better understand the total benefits of PC performance. The company said TPI will help define a new, more accurate measure of processor performance for standard applications. The initiative will be chaired by Patrick Moorhead, who has been appointed as AMD's vice president of customer advocacy, reporting to the office of the CEO.

"For most of the PC's first 20 years, megahertz was a reliable indicator of PC processor performance because the major players used the same architecture for product design, and clock speed was a good proxy for performance. This is no longer true," said W.J. (Jerry) Sanders III, chairman and chief executive officer at AMD.

According to Sanders, AMD's Athlon processor architecture "demonstrates that clock speed is only half of the performance equation." Moreover, he said, the new Athlon XP processor--previously code-named "Palomino"--contains new, patented features to extend the performance beyond the traditional megahertz benchmark (see today's story).

In fact, AMD is adopting a new CPU model numbering system that no longer refers to clock speeds in megahertz. The Athlon XP is being introduced in 1800+, 1700+, 1600+ and 1500+ versions. (The Athlon XP 1800+ is supposed to stack up and beat Intel's 1.8-GHz Pentium 4 processor in terms of performance.)

While AMD is attempting to rally outside support for new TPI benchmarks, it will certainly face opposition in the industry--especially from Intel. Historically, efforts to set new processor benchmarks have been extremely difficult, if not impossible, because any measurement potentially favors one CPU architecture or design over another.

To audit the performance of its new Athlon XP processors, AMD has hired Andersen's Risk Consulting group, which will use new benchmarks to measure PC system power in digital media, office applications and three-dimensional (3-D) games.

"Andersen's independent examination of the AMD Athlon XP processor performance benchmarks has included observations and tests of the system configuration, procedures and the recording of results," said Edward Hill, partner in Andersen's Risk Consulting group. "Andersen's examination will enhance consumer confidence in benchmark results," he added.