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After the release of the original cacheless Celeron in 1998, the arrival of it's replacement the Mendocino was something the PC community was not waiting expectantly for. This turned out to be something that we were all surprised by, as the Intel Celeron had undergone a huge transformation and was now a product fit to take the battle into AMD territory. Things were about to get interesting. Intel Celeron part 2, the MendocinoLate August 1998 saw the release of the second iteration of the Intel Celeron, the Mendocino, or Celeron A as it was known. This differed from its lacklustre predecessor by the inculsion of 128Kb of level 2 cache. This only being a quarter of the cache of the Pentium II, the expectations were not high, but what many failed to see was that the level 2 cache was implemented very differently on the Celeron A as to its more illustrious counterpart. Wheras the Pentium II had its cache located on the processor module (it was covered by the plastic casing), the Celeron A saw its cache fully integrated into the processor core itself. This allowed the cache to be run at full processor clock speed as opposed to only half processor clock speed as on the Pentium II. This has a significant effect upon processor power, as the Celeron is every bit as fast as the Pentium II in most applications. The Celeron 300A we believe to be actually faster than the Pentium II 300. This action turned the Celeron into a credible alternative to the K6-2 and the Pentium II. The original Slot 1 Celeron A's ran at 300 & 333 MHz. These were joined in January 1999 by the 366 & 400 MHz versions. The Slot 1 Celeron's though are becoming something of a rarity as they are superseded by the new PPGA (Plastic Pin Grid Array) Socket 370 Celerons. These are electronically identical to the Slot 1 Celeron, but are mechanically similar to the old Socket 7 chips (although electronically incompatible). The Socket 370 Celeron's are currently available in 333, 366, 400 and 433 MHz versions. Intel plan to release a 466 MHz version of the Celeron in the near future. The Celeron A has also been a huge hit with the overclocking community, as it appears to have snatched the crown of the most overclockable processor in PC history (the crown being previously held by the AMD AM486). The Celeron 300 A was a particular favourite here with some being able to attain speeds of up to 450 MHz. April 26th 1999 saw the release of the 466 MHz version of the Celeron. This is coupled to the introduction of Intel's new 810 chipset which has both a 66 and 100 MHz bus, although the Celeron is not slated to use the 100 MHz bus for some time yet (600 MHz?). The Celeron A in the opinion of the Processor Emporium is one of THE best processors currently available. It offers superb speed in all areas to make it a relistic alternative to both the AMD K6-2 and Intel Pentium II. Only the advent of the Pentium III and the K6 III might the PC buyer want to think again, but the Celeron is still probably the most temting chip available to date. Celeron, the VerdictTo the PC buyer the Processor Emporium would recommend the Intel Celeron highly so long as it is not the early 266 & 300 MHz versions. If it is the Celeron 300A or above, we can commend this processor in the extreme. It offers Pentium II power for K6 prices, which can only be a good thing for the consumer. We at the Processor Emporium were recently involved in building a system based upon the Celeron 400, and were very impressed by the sheer power it contains. We could not help but be amused by the packaging which read "Designed for the Basic PC", as this offers levels of power in excess of any basic PC.
The Intel Celeron has joined the AMD K6 range in the list of the Processor Emporium's best value for money processors. A high acclaim
indeed. Intel Celeron, Technical Data
Other Intel Processors at:
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