Got all that?

AMD suggests that by distinguishing the processor family (such as A or E) and adding numbers from lower to higher, it's simplifying the process for retail buyers and making it more intuitive.

But this is supposed to simplify computer-buying for those not poring over the latest reviews and benchmarks online, for the casual consumer or the small business customer purchasing major vendors' products via retail. But does "Vision A6" really tell a small business owner anything about the computer system?

Really, chip makers are to blame for their own marketing challenges. For more than a decade, they largely distinguished their processors based on the clock speed of the chip. It was simple and intuitive. There was no doubt that 2.5 GHz was faster than 1.2 GHz.

But when clock speeds stopped their rapid ascent into the Gigahertz and chip makers started turning to new ideas (adding cores, integrating graphics capabilities into the chip) to squeeze more performance out of a given system, things got blurry.