The ping commmand in cisco ios is divited into simple and extended ping. 

With simple ping you can ping one ip address. With extended ping you can use the ping for measuring many things other than simple conectivity between ip adresses. For example you can change the packet size.  A good webpage deschribing how extended ping works and the possibilities that you can use is

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk365/technologies_tech_note09186a0080093f22.shtml