There's a problem that has crept up on the industry and while everyone is sort of aware of the problem, nobody really wants to address the problem. What I' referring to here is the increasing complexity and subsequent incompatibilities of components in the PC business from CPUs, to memory sticks, to even the SD flash memory module.

What is happening?

It started with Intel and AMD. I have no idea what chip is the best of most powerful anymore. I just look at the price and assume the most expensive chip is the most powerful. It used to be easy. A K6 was more powerful (and newer) than a K5. A 486 was newer and more powerful than a 386.

Now what do we have?

Intel has tried to stabilize things with the "Core" moniker. But which is newer and more powerful? Let me ask you. Is it the 2nd Generation Core i7 Processor or the Core i7 Processor Extreme Edition?

It's not obvious to me.

And within the category of any processor family it gets even more confusing. For example, let's look at the Core i5 second generation chips as shown on the Intel website. There are 8 chips listed. The differences between these chips is minor, seems to me. Then why have all the different nomenclatures? The nomenclatures don't make any sense. Do I want a i5-2500S or a i52500T? The "T" is the higher letter, so it must be the more powerful of the two, right? Apparently not, because the S runs at 2.7 GHz, and the T at only 2.3 GHz. Oh, and there is a plain i5-2500 with no letter. It rocks at 3.3 GHz.

It is nonsensical.

Should I even go into the variety of main memory required for today's computer? The poor folks at Kingston must be pulling their hair out making odd modules for every weird combination of CPU and motherboard. What happened to systems that ALL required a standard memory module like PC-100?

This whole problem has been getting worse over the years and now impinges other aspect of the business. Take SD flash memory cards, for example. First there was an issue with address space, so a new "HC" or high capacity memory was designed. This, of course, was not compatible with early gear, and many of these cards could not be read by early readers, which was the beginning of the agony. Then all of a sudden, some new "class" structure has evolved to designate card speed and some architectural changes. Again, incompatibilities abound. Half the time you still can't figure what to get or how to read the cards.

As far as I know, this weirdness has yet to happen with the big CompactFlash cards, and they seem compatible across the board. So why is SD so odd? There are a million reasons which all seem to stem from muddy thinking at the inception of SD memory.

The industry is selling confusion when it needs to be selling simplicity and understandability. Unfortunately, there are no standard setting bodies that can help, and we all suffer in the meantime as we try to figure out what it is that we want. More often than not, we choose to avoid the purchase altogether.