AMD pushing simplified PC spec system

Baffled by whether you need DDR2 or DDR3 RAM? Don't know whether a 7200rpm hard drive is required on your rig or if 5400rpm is good enough? And what are your thoughts on that most arcane of PC specs: The size of your microchip's L2 cache?

If you're confused, you're not alone, and while some PC buyers love to dig into the nitty gritty of these details -- as they have long called it in the business, "feeds and speeds" -- most buyers are simply confused by all this information and have no use for it. And now, manufacturers are wising up to this too, and the obtuse world of endlessly detailed computer specs may at last be coming to an end.

This week, AMD launched an ambitious plan to do away with most of the tech-speak gobbledygook, at least as it relates to the way it markets its products in retail outlets.

What used to take 40 pages to explain to salespeople has now been whittled down to a two-page pamphlet and a trio of logos, thanks to what the company calls the VISION Technology program.

Like most PC marketing systems, VISION comes down to a sticker on a laptop or the side of a PC, but AMD wants those stickers to mean something more than they do today (the label on my ThinkPad reads "Intel Centrino vPro Inside" -- and that's supposed to tell me what?). Essentially the VISION sticker will come in three versions, designed to give a buyer guidance about what kind of CPU and GPU features the computer has: a "regular" one fit for everyday check-the-web-and-email users, a "premium" one designed for more multimedia-heavy use like editing photos, and an "ultimate" one designed for power users who play games, edit video, and other high-end stuff.

And that's it: The idea is to make it simple enough for the average buyer to simply pick from one of those three options when buying a PC. Even the AMD logo is minimized on the label in favor of a giant "VISION" tag. Check the image above for more details on how these products shake out.

Intel is tiptoeing in this direction, too. While it still promotes at least 17 different CPU models, it's now trying to bottle most of that under the "CORE" brand, though it hasn't come near to reaching the level of simplicity that AMD has. More plans to simplify its marketing are rumored to be on the way.

Will computer buyers respond? For most consumers this sounds like a good idea, provided you can still dig deep into the specs somewhere before you buy if you need it. (I would still want to know how big the hard drive is, for example.) The program's success, however, will likely depend on how successful AMD is at pushing itself back into retail outlets. After years of being marginalized by an increasingly powerful Intel, the company is finally having some success at getting more shelf space and more mindshare. VISION will probably only help that battle.

More at the New York Times.