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Celeron 300a/333 and Socket 470
by Overclocker (30/7/98) Updated on 14/9/98

Chia LM bought his Celeron 300a S-Spec SL32A from Sim Lim Sq and overclocked it to 450Mhz. Here are the specs :

Celeron 300A SL32A (malaysia) at 2.1v
ABIT BH FL Bios
Stable at 4.5x100(Turbo freq) = 462, 463??
Winstone 98 - 28.6
Winbench 98 CPU 32 - 960
Winbench 98 FPU - 2480
SDRAM - 32MB ASUS PC100 SEC - GH, 32MB hyandai PC-66
Video - ATI Xpert@play 98 AGP
Drive - IBM Deskstar 5 6.4GB
Sound Card - Terasound A3D

A email from Daniel Chan ([email protected]) dtd 12/9/98

I have attached my WT98.html benchmarks for your reference

I have successfully overclocked my 300a (SL2WM) at 2.2v to 504MHz on a BH6 with
Samsung original -GH Cas2 RAM (running at CAS2).

It has been running for about 5 hours now.  I get 121 fps in Quake2
with my overclocked Voodoo2 (95 MHz) at 640X480.  However,
this is with most things turned off (such as particles, lights, etc).

WinTune 98

Offline Test Results

How does this compare to a P2 with 512k of cache? The CPU Integer / Floating point scores beat the highest scores I had achieved with my P2-333@4x100 by quite a margin!

Note - I include CPU benchmarks here only, as Video / Disk scores will vary dependent on system specifications. Memory scores are not included, as my PC66 SDRAM scores poorly on benchmarks and it not a true reflection of what can be achieved with PC100 ram.

My system specs:

Celeron 300a with CoolerMaster cooling.

Abit BH6 rev 1.01B - FL BIOS

Matrox Mystique 2 megs

STB Black Magic Voodoo2

64 megabytes of PC66 SDRAM (stable at 112 mhz)

You can read the full review at The Unofficial Abit BX6 / BH6 Page

New motherboard for Celeron 333a (Mendocino) (24 Aug 98)

ENPC^� EP-KZ21
PPGA Socket 370 /  Intel 440ZX AGP Chipset / 66/75/83 MHZ bus speed

This is one of the first motherboard that uses the INTEL ZX chipset. As written, Celeron 333 will be used on a socketed board with ZX chipset. Another version is also available which is based on Slot 1 architecture.

Intel Celeron processors 333 and 300A MHz include integrated L2 cache 128K. Intel Celeron processor core for the 300 and 266 MHz parts has 7.5M transistors. The core for the 333 and 300A parts has 19M transistors due to the addition of the integrated L2 cache 128K.

All Intel Celeron processors are based on Intel’s advanced 0.25 micron CMOS process technology. The processor is provided in the single edge processor package (S.E.P.P.) enabling ease of design, as well as cost efficiency. The Intel Celeron™ processors offer the dependability you expect from Intel at an exceptional value. They are backed by Intel’s more than 25 years of experience engineering and manufacturing high quality, reliable microprocessors. - Intel Corp.

This is the iCOMP index on intel web site

iCOMP ^� Index 2.0
Performance Comparison

Overclockability of Celeron 300/333a (Mendocino) (23 Aug 98)

Early speculations of Celeron 300a/333 is that it is not as overclockable as compared to it's brothers Celeron 266 and 300. Design specs indicates that it is more like a Pentium Pro. But Celeron 300a/333 (Mendocino) has a different cache from the Pentium Pro. Although the Pentium Pro has full-speed cache, it resides in an external ceramic package, limiting its overclockability. the Celeron 300a/333 has an on-die L2 cache which can run at max speed at 300/333Mhz; full CPU Speed. So, the L2 is more like a L1.

Comparing to a PII-333 which has a L2 of 512K and a L1 of 32K, Celeron 300a/333 would have something like a L2 of 128K and a L1 of 32K. Since L2 and L1 seems to be the same in Celeron 300a/333, the probable expectation is that the Celeron 300a/333 might be faster than a PII-333. The latest from Tom's Hardware is that the Celeron 300a at overclocked is almost on par with PII-450.

Some early evaluators have tried turning off L2 cache. Testing indicates overclocking cannot go further whether L2 cache is disabled or enabled. This could prove that the Celeron 300a/333's L2 cache isn't the limiting factor in its overclocking.

According to sources, the new Celeron Mendocino will sit on a socket instead on Slot 1.   It will be known as Socket 470. Not socket 9, 10.

It looks like it's trying to lock everyone into a new form of propritary architecture

Intel Roadmap     : Socket 7 -> Socket 8 -> Slot 1 -> Slot 2 -> Slot 9 ?????
AMD Roadmap     : Socket 7 -> Super 7 (100mhz) -> Slot A -> Slot B ????
Cyrix                  : Socket 7 -> Super 10 ????

Previously, there was the Pentium MMX followed by Pentium II. Intel did not see the sub-$1,000 PC market coming.  And the Pentium II did not gain the market share as its Pentium predecessor.  While late in the game, Intel finally released the "Celeron" Pentium II, being L2 cache-less using Slot 1 architecture (EX Chipset).

The Celeron reduced costs somewhat, but not enough.  Why not?  Inherit to its
design, the Slot 1 form-factor was to separate L2 cache from L1/core.  But
with Celeron lacking a L2 cache, resulting in a small single IC on the large
Slot 1 SEC, so the form-factor became more costly than simply selling the IC
on its own (like the Pentium before it).  So, what does Intel do?

INTEL INTRODUCES A NEW, PROPRIETARY 370-PIN SOCKET!  Socket 9 perhaps?

Why?  Socket 8 is almost exactly the same bus as Slot 1 (electrically
speaking).  Why not just use it?  You could get the masses of Pentium Pro
users to upgrade to higher speeds right?

Well, since Intel partially licensed Socket 8 off, and NS/Cyrix has recently gained access to Socket 8 - Slot 1, I guess Intel had to create another type of socket architecture to totally close it up again.

So my guess is that there might be companies that would make an adaptor that could plug into existing Super 7 boards to supply the 2.0v for a Celeron on Socket 9 ?

Will Intel still be able to dominate the market ?? when you have VIA coming up with a Slot-1 architecture ? Check out the report on VIA's Slot 1 based motherboards that will be available Q3 1998.