On 25 Aug 98 at 9:34, Michael Gerke wrote:

> Would some of you please help me out by explaining just what the Intel
> Celeron Processor is all about?
>
> How does it compare with the standard  Pentium and the Pentium II ?

  Celeron is, put bluntly, an attempt to eliminate the price
advantage that has allowed Socket 7 CPUs (AMD, Cyrix, IDT) to
continue to compete in the marketplace, by delivering low-cost Slot 1
("Pentium II") systems.  [I have, in the past, compared this to GM,
having decided to build only Cadillacs, introducing a 4-cylinder
engine that only fits a Cadillac chassis, in order to compete with
BMW and Toyota....]

  The first generation of Celerons achieved low cost by
eliminating L2 cache, yielding a chip that clocks faster than a
regular PII, but actually performs a bit worse.  [Apparently, many
266 MHz Celerons can be overclocked reliably to about 400 MHz or so,
which may more than offset the no-caching penalty.]
  The second generation of Celerons is just being released, with
128KB of L2 cache.  Recall that a PII has 512KB of L2 -- but the
Celeron with L2 packs two advantages:

1.  Its L2 runs at CPU speed; PII runs it at half speed.

2.  Its L2 is integrated on the same single chip as the CPU -- PII's
    is on a second chip inside the CPU "package".  This offers a cost
    saving on assembly of the CPU package -- as well as better
    reliability and reduced power consumption.

  Note that while you can use a Celeron in any Slot 1 motherboard,
Intel is encouraging system builders to pair it with a new 440EX
chipset (440BX, minus some features that Intel considers "high end")
to build inexpensive systems with high integration and minimal
upgrade/expansion options.

  I believe some of the early Celeron models were expected to drop
below $100 this month, so you'll be seeing them in $899 PCs....

David G