With today's CPUs getting more complex and with the increased difficulty for manufacturers to achieve higher GHz frequencies, it's easy to explain why the on-going trend of removing gigahertz references from PC processors in favor of propietary numbering that will supposedly reflect overall performance output of new chips.

AMD has been doing so for sometime now, although current Opteron model numbering reflect better the change that is about to be seen.
In the other hand, Intel is planning a marketing blitz, shifting away the focus from pure performance to features and so-called 'user benefits', a good example would be the successful Centrino platform although things are about to change even more radically, we are told.

With the introduction of Intel's newest chipset, code-named Grantsdale, the chip giant plans to promote embedded features like it has never before. Grantsdale is expected to bring integrated video with DX9 support, PCI Express expansion slots, Dolby audio, DDR/DDR2 and integrated wireless support.