New Consumer-Protection Bill Targets CPU Speeds
|
|
After rescuing consumers from the ravages of inaccurate monitor and modem specifications, the United States Senate appears to be gearing up to save the public from misleading ads about PC performance as well. The Personal Computer Truth in Advertising Act of 1997, also known as Senate Bill 721, has just been introduced by Senator Robert Torricelli, a Democrat from New Jersey. It requires that the Federal Trade Commission investigate the marketing and advertising practices of PC manufacturers. A member of Torricelli%squots staff told PC World Online today that the senator has been concerned for several years that PC makers may be misleading consumers about the performance of their products. In particular, Torricelli wants the FTC to look into the industry practice of advertising only the internal clock speed (in megahertz) of a computer%squots central processing unit, without also mentioning what the bill refers to as the %dquotexternal speed%dquot of the CPU. According to the bill, a PC%squots external speed, which most of us know as the bus or motherboard speed–neither term is used in the bill–affects such factors as scrolling rates, animation smoothness, and the frame rate of, say, flight simulators. And according to the bill, the internal speed of a CPU– whether it%squots 133 MHz, 166 MHz, or higher–affects spreadsheet calculations, spell-checking, and database applications. More : pcworld.com |