If you have been looking at new computers lately, you may be confused by the different types and names of processor chips. Don't worry, it's not you! The brains of our computers have not only gotten better, they have gotten more complicated to understand.

There are many different processors on the market right now. It used to be all about speed. You could look at the speed of the chip in megahertz and the higher the number, the faster the chip. That is no longer true. We have gone to multi-core processors. There are many different types with many different names. And the speed of the chip in megahertz is no longer the main thing to look at, nor is it the most important.

The most popular chips today are called dual core. These are chips by AMD and by Intel. Both are similar in that they put two cores on a single die, giving you, quite simply, two chips that work together. AMD calls their chips dual core. Intel has Core Duo chips and a similar chip that has faster clock speeds called Core 2 Duo.

As you can see, Intel's naming conventions are nothing short of confusing. Just try to remember that Intel's Core 2 Duo is currently the best chip in the two-chip competition and that Intel's Core Duos and AMDs dual-core chips are next in line.

To complicate things even further, laptops often have their own set of differing processing chips. Intel steps in again with yet another complicated naming convention. Their Centrino label on laptops means that they are equipped with a certain chipset, CPU, and wireless networking capabilities that have been certified by Intel. Don't confuse the name Centrino with the name "Celeron". Celeron is a low-end Intel chip that you will want to avoid unless you really can't afford something better.

Ready for even more confusion? Intel has several different naming conventions for Centrino laptops. Including Centrino, Centrino vPro and Centrino 2, Centrino vPro2 and Centrino Atom. The vPro models have features for business laptops, and the Atom has been designed for the smaller Net PCs that are starting to appear on the market. That said -- you can see that the various chips and their names are ultimately confusing.

The latest chips are quad-core chips, which give you basically 4 chips in one. Quad-core chips obviously give you more processing power but they have a premium price because they are newer.

This assessment of CPUs and chip sets is pretty simplistic. There are many things that can and do affect the speed and performance of these chips including bus systems, cache, and types of memory that they use. If you understand all this terminology and/or want to research it, you can certainly gain a more complete understanding of just how fast the various computers will be.
If you don't want to do the investigation but just want to buy a new computer, use these simplistic guidelines.

• Avoid Celeron (Intel) and Sempron (AMD) chips unless you just want to do email and web surfing and don't plan on doing any intensive computing. These are the current low-end chips.
• Dual- core processors including AMD and Intel processors will handle most of the unusual computing needs for home users.
• Intel's Core 2 Duo is the fastest of the dual-core group and is currently reasonably priced.
• Quad-core processors are more powerful and faster. They offer the most protection from future obsolescence, but they are currently pricey.
• Intel Centrino chips are good for laptops, but AMD chips along with wireless capabilities are a close second.