Intel previews Slot 2 Pentium II

Now that this week's introduction of the Celeron and Pentium II 350 and 400is complete, Intel is moving on to the next generation Pentium II microprocessors, the so-called "Slot 2" Pentium II chips. The currentgeneration of Pentium II microprocessors use a "Slot 1" design that housesthe CPU in a black plastic cartridge that connects to the motherboard viatwo rails. The Pentium II 350 and 400 released this week employ the Slot 1design, which limits the number of processors to two, and limits the speedof the L2 cache to half that of the processor.

The Slot 2 design, however, will offer several enhancements to the existingPentium II. First of all, Slot 2 Pentium II systems support up to fourprocessors. Because the Slot 2 will support up to 2 MB of L2 cache (currentsystems are limited to 512KB), the cartridge is almost twice the size ofthe Slot 1, necessitating some serious case and motherboard design changes.While it's only a little wider, it's more than twice as tall as the Slot 1design.

For several reasons, Intel will attempt to sell Slot 2 systems as serversolutions only, and will price them at a premium. The first Slot 2processors--which are expected to be 350 and 400 MHz versions--are duelater this year. The Slot 1 design, meanwhile, will be updated once or twice more, with a 450 MHz version in July, and perhaps a 500 MHz versionby the end of the year. After that, it's all Slot 2, and despite Intel'shopes, the Slot 2 will likely make it downmarket to the desktop soonerrather than later