CELERON

9/26/98

Celeron: A low end Pentium processor introduced by Intel in April 1998 to compete with inexpensive processors from Cyrix and AMD. The original Celeron is basically a Pentium II without an internal L2 cache. The Celeron CPUs were produced with a .25 micron process and released as 266 and 300 MHz parts in the same 242 contact in line package "Socket I" used for the Pentium II but with only a 4GB external address range. As of mid 2000, it is rumored that the last Celeron will be a 733MHz unit and that the Celeron will be replaced by the Tinma -- which may be called a Celeron for marketing purposes.

The early Celerons were comparatively poor performers ("Decelerons") generally producing about the same results on benchmark tests as MMX Pentiums of the same clock speed. Celeron chipsets do not support external L2 cache.

The early Celerons were frequently overclocked to 400MHz by experimenters.

In August of 1998, an advanced Celeron (code name "Mendocino") was released at clock speeds of 300 and 333MHz. The 300 MHz part is designated as the Celeron 300a. The Celeron 300a/333 include a 128kb L2 cache operating at CPU clock speed and are apparently much closer to the Pentium II in performance than the original Celerons. A Celeron 366 was scheduled for release in December 1998 in both Socket 1 and 370 pin packaging. 400 and 466 MHz versions was released in 1999. 100MHz Bus operation is expected by the end of the third quarter of 99.

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