Socket-370 to Slot-1 Converters

By now, everyone's heard of the infamous "Socket-370" Celeron chips, standard Celerons mounted in a socket 7-esque Plastic Pin Grid Array. This, only a scant year after the introduction of the Slot-1, which Intel declared the future of its processors. The reasoning behind this move was simple - with the Celeron line incorporating 128Kb of L2 cache directly on the processor die, there was no more need for the extra material that went into the slot cartridge. Additionally, it was an easy way for Intel to segregate the low-cost Celeron line from their flagship Pentium II.

This is all well and good for Intel, but what does it mean for everyone else? In a nutshell, the new socketed Celerons require completely new motherboards, ones that have the new "Socket-370" connector. While this leads to a cheaper solution overall, it severely limits the upgrade path for Celeron buyers. One of the less mentioned benefits of the original Slot-1 Celerons were their total compatibility with Pentium II, and even Pentium III CPUs. Buy a high end system, save $5-600 on the CPU, and later on when you feel the need to invest more heavily (or become too skittish about overclocking), stick in a 500Mhz P3 part and you've got yourself a nice upgrade without any hassles.

The Celeron PPGA basically closes this door completely. Since the form factor is different, a completely new motherboard is required to even plug in the CPU. As the Celeron is marketed as a low-end CPU, you can see where this is headed - no dual-CPU or on-board SCSI/LAN for Socket 370 motherboards, less focus on overclocking or supporting FSB frequencies above 100Mhz, and so on. With PPGA, there's not only less variety, but fewer high-end options. What's more, Intel is planning on phasing out Slot-1 for Celeron all-together, in a plan to keep the Celery from cutting into high-profile Pentium II sales.

Enter the "Socket-370 to Slot-1 Adapter," or Slocket for short. These adapters, being custom-developed by several motherboard manufacturers independently, are designed to alleviate the physical incompatibility between the Socket and the Slot. In short, it allows a Socket-370 Celeron to run in a Slot-1 motherboard. How is this possible? Well, since the Celeron line started using an integrated on-die L2 cache, there's been no need for the actual PCB board around the CPU core. Socket-370 is simply a boardless version of a standard Celeron processor. With no real infrastructure change needed, making a converter card is a fairly straightforward matter.