Intel Celeron brand logo.

A Celeron is any of a large number of different budget x86 microprocessors produced by Intel and marketed as a budget/value CPU line. The Celeron family complements Intel's higher-performance (and more expensive) Pentium CPUs family. Introduced in August 1998, the first Celeron was based on the Pentium II core. Later versions were based on the Pentium III, Pentium 4, and Pentium-M. x86 or 80x86 is the generic name of a microprocessor architecture first developed and manufactured by Intel. ... Microprocessors, including an Intel 80486DX2 and an Intel 80386 A microprocessor (sometimes abbreviated µP) is a digital electronic component with miniaturized transistors on a single semiconductor integrated circuit (IC). ... Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC, HKEx: 4335), founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics Corporation, is a U.S.-based multinational corporation that is best known for designing and manufacturing microprocessors and specialized integrated circuits. ... It has been suggested that Product marketing be merged into this article or section. ... Pentium logo, with MMX enhancement The Pentium is a fifth-generation x86 architecture microprocessor by Intel employee Vinod Dahm which first shipped on March 22, 1993. ... Intel 80486DX2 microprocessor in a ceramic PGA package A central processing unit (CPU), or sometimes simply processor, is the component in a digital computer that interprets instructions and processes data contained in software. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... Pentium II – front view The Pentium II is an x86 architecture microprocessor by Intel, introduced on May 7, 1997. ... Pentium III logo The Pentium III is an x86 (more precisely, an i686) architecture microprocessor by Intel, introduced on February 26, 1999. ... New Intel Pentium 4 with HyperThreading logo Old Pentium 4 (with hyper-threading) brand logo, replaced by one above The Pentium 4 is a seventh-generation x86 architecture microprocessor produced by Intel and is their first all-new CPU design, called the NetBurst architecture, since the Pentium Pro of 1995. ... Pentium M brand logo Introduced in March 2003, the Pentium M is an x86 architecture microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel and forms part of the Intel Centrino platform. ...

Background

As a product concept, the Celeron was introduced in response to Intel's loss of the low-end market, in particular to Cyrix's 6x86 and AMD's K6, but also to other competitors such as the IDT Winchip. Intel's existing low-end product, the venerable Pentium MMX, was no longer performance competitive. Although a faster Pentium MMX would have been a lower-risk strategy, the industry standard Socket 7 platform hosted a market of competitor CPUs which could be drop-in replacements for the Pentium/MMX. Instead, Intel pursued a budget part that was pin-compatible with their high-end Pentium II product, using the Pentium-II's (Slot 1) interface. Market share, in strategic management and marketing, is the percentage or proportion of the total available market or market segment that is being serviced by a company. ... Cyrix corporate logo CPU manufacturer Cyrix began in 1988 as a specialist supplier of high-performance math co-processors for 286 and 386 systems. ... The Cyrix 6x86 is a sixth-generation, 32-bit 80x86_compatible microprocessor designed by Cyrix and manufactured by IBM and SGS_Thomson. ... Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ... History 1997 saw the arrival of AMDs K6 microprocessor. ... IDT can mean: Integrated Device Technology, a semiconductor manufacturer Interrupt Descriptor Table, a memory structure essential to the operation of x86 microprocessors in protected mode International Discount Telecomunications, a long distance carrier in the United States of America and other contries known as IDT Corporation. ... Launched in October 1997 the IDT WinChip C6 was designed and marketed as a low power x86 processor running at 200MHz. ... Pentium MMX - top view The Pentium is a fifth-generation x86 architecture microprocessor by Intel which first shipped on March 22, 1993. ... Socket 7 is a physical and electrical specification for the x86 processor socket matching the pins on Pentium microprocessors manufactured by Intel, and compatibles made by Cyrix, AMD and others. ... Pentium II – front view The Pentium II is an x86 architecture microprocessor by Intel, introduced on May 7, 1997. ... Slot 1 refers to the physical and electrical specification for the connector used by some of Intels microprocessors, including the Celeron, Pentium II and the Pentium III. Slot 1 was a departure from the square ZIF PGA/SPGA sockets used for the Pentium and earlier processors. ...

The first Celeron (Covington)

The first Celeron (codenamed Covington) was essentially a 266 MHz Pentium II manufactured without any secondary cache at all. Although clocked at 266 or 300 MHz (substantially higher than the old Pentium MMX), the cacheless Celerons were a good deal slower than the parts they were designed to replace. Substantial numbers were sold on first release, largely on the strength of the Intel name, but the Celeron quickly achieved a poor reputation both in the trade press and among computer professionals. Many people referred to it unkindly but accurately enough as the Slugeron, Celery or Deceleron. The initial market interest faded rapidly in the face of its poor performance and with sales at a very low level, Intel felt obliged to develop a substantially faster replacement as soon as possible. Street markets such as this one in Rue Mouffetard, Paris are still common in France. ...

Mendocino

Celeron 300A

Front of a Socket 370 Celeron

Back of a Socket 370 Celeron.

Intel was well aware of the poor reputation of the original Celeron and determined not to make the same mistake twice, with the result that the new Mendocino core Celeron was a good performer from the outset. Indeed, most industry analysts regarded the first Mendocino-based Celerons as too successful—performance was sufficiently high to not only compete strongly with rival parts, but also to attract buyers away from Intel's high-profit flagship, the Pentium II. Download high resolution version (1350x600, 286 KB)Celeron 300A Image taken by MaXim File links The following pages link to this file: Celeron Categories: GPL images ... Download high resolution version (1350x600, 286 KB)Celeron 300A Image taken by MaXim File links The following pages link to this file: Celeron Categories: GPL images ...

The key to the new Celeron's performance was cache. Where the old model had no secondary cache at all, the new part included 128 KB of L2 cache as part of the chip itself. Otherwise, it was identical. With a total of 19.2 million transistors (including cache) on a single chip, the Mendocino Celeron was difficult and expensive to manufacture, but Intel managed a flawless execution of an ambitious project.

The first Mendocino-core Celeron was clocked at a then-modest 300 MHz but was almost twice as fast as the old cacheless Celeron at the same clockspeed. To distinguish it from the old model, Intel called it the 300A. Although the other Mendocino Celerons (the 333 MHz part, for example) did not have an A appended, some people call all Mendocino processors Celeron-A regardless of speed.

The Mendocino Celeron was the first mass-market CPU to utilise on-chip L2 cache. On-chip cache is difficult to manufacture; especially L2 as more of it is needed to attain an adequate level of performance. A benefit of on-die cache is that it can be made to run much faster than individual off-chip cache chips. Contrast this with the other common cache arrangements at that time. Most CPUs used mainboard mounted or slot mounted secondary L2 cache, which was very easy to manufacture, cheap, and simple to enlarge to any desired size. Typical cache sizes were 512 KB to 1 MB, typical speeds 66 to 100 MHz. The Pentium II had a pair of moderately high-speed L2 cache chips mounted on a special-purpose board alongside the processor itself. This was expensive and imposed practical cache-size limits, but allowed it to be clocked faster. Typical size was 512 KB, always running at 1/2 of the processor speed. The new Mendocino Celeron had only 128 KB of cache, but ran it at full clock speed (typically 300MHz). The term L2 may refer to The Level-2 CPU cache in a computer The second lumbar vertebra in Human anatomy The second Lagrange Point in an astronomical Solar System This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... The term L2 may refer to The Level-2 CPU cache in a computer The second lumbar vertebra in Human anatomy The second Lagrange Point in an astronomical Solar System This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... The term L2 may refer to The Level-2 CPU cache in a computer The second lumbar vertebra in Human anatomy The second Lagrange Point in an astronomical Solar System This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Although the Mendocino Celeron cache was rather small, its high clock speed more than overcame that handicap, and the Mendocino Celeron was a success, particularly with the enthusiast market. Overclockers soon discovered that, given a high-end motherboard, the Celeron-A/300 could run reliably at 450 MHz. This was achieved by simply increasing the Front Side Bus (FSB) speed from the stock 66 MHz to the 100 MHz spec of the Pentium II. At this speed, the Mendocino Celeron rivalled the fastest x86 processors available. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... An old Octek Jaguar V main board with an AMD 386DX-40 processor. ... Front Side Bus (FSB) is the term used to describe the CPU data bus. ... Pentium II – front view The Pentium II is an x86 architecture microprocessor by Intel, introduced on May 7, 1997. ...

Over time, newer Mendocino processors were released at 333, 366, 400, 433, 466, 500, and 533 MHz. They all ran on the 66 MHz FSB, which was not a particular issue with the 300, but became a major limitation with the faster-clocked parts, and Mendocino Celerons from about 433 MHz upwards were adequate rather than good.

The Mendocino Celerons also introduced new packaging. When the Mendocinos debuted they came in both a Slot 1 and Socket 370 PPGA package. The Slot 1 form had been designed to accommodate the off-chip cache of the Pentium II and had mounting problems with motherboards. Because all Celerons are a single-chip design, however, there was no reason to retain the slot packaging for L2 cache storage, and Intel discontinued the Slot 1 variant: beginning with the 466 MHz part, only the PPGA Socket 370 form was offered. (Third-party manufacturers made motherboard slot-to-socket adaptors (nicknamed Slotkets) available for a few dollars, which allowed, for example, a Celeron 500 to be fitted to a Slot 1 motherboard.) One interesting note about the PPGA Socket 370 Mendocinos is that SMP mode was available, and there was at least one motherboard released the Abit BP6 which took advantage of this fact. Socket 370 is a common format of CPU socket first used by Intel for Celeron processors to replace the older Slot 1 CPU interface on personal computers. ... Package Diagram for 168-Pin PGA Embedded IntelDX2™ Processor The pin grid array or PGA is a type of packaging used for integrated circuits, particularly microprocessors. ... Slotket adapter In computer hardware terminology, slotkets (short for slot to socket adapter) are adapters that allow socket based microprocessors to be used on slot based motherboards. ...

The Mendocino also came in a mobile variant, with speeds from 266, 300, 333, 366, 400, 433, and 466 MHz.

Coppermine-128

Celeron Coppermine 128 with 600 MHz

Backside of a Celeron Coppermine 128, 600 MHz

The next generation Celeron was the Coppermine-128 (sometimes known as the Celeron II). These were a derivative of Intel's latest high-end part, the "Coppermine" Pentium III and were released in March 2000. Like the Mendocino, the Celeron-128 used 128 KB of on-chip L2 cache and was restricted to a 66 MHz bus speed. It was identical to the Pentium III except for the smaller secondary cache and the much slower bus. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (800x795, 231 KB) Please see the file description page for further information. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (800x795, 231 KB) Please see the file description page for further information. ... Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... Coppermine is a type of microprocessor, a particular version of the Pentium III, made by Intel. ... Pentium III logo The Pentium III is an x86 (more precisely, an i686) architecture microprocessor by Intel, introduced on February 26, 1999. ... This article is about the year 2000. ...

Although in theory the Celeron-128 had an updated core, the benefit of this was not noticeable. The Celeron was, by this time, the only mainstream CPU still using a 66 MHz bus and running 66 MHz RAM, and was significantly slower than any major competitor. Sales gradually dwindled as the industry moved on and, although making a 100 MHz bus version would have been a trivially easy task, Intel chose not to—probably because they had major production problems at that time and preferred to concentrate available resources on trying to ship sufficient volumes of the high-margin Pentium III.

All Coppermine-128s were produced in the same FCPGA Socket 370 format that most Coppermine Pentium IIIs used. These Celerons started at 533 MHz and continued through 566, 600, 633, 666, 700, 733, and 766 MHz. Because of the limitations of the 66 MHz bus, there was very little performance difference between the higher-clocked models; so long as the major competition was the elderly AMD K6-2, this was acceptable. In July 2000, however, AMD released their Athlon-derived Duron—a budget CPU with a faster bus and larger caches. The Celeron-128 became almost as uncompetitive as the original 266 MHz part had been. Package Diagram for 168-Pin PGA Embedded IntelDX2™ Processor The pin grid array or PGA is a type of packaging used for integrated circuits, particularly microprocessors. ... The K6-2 was a x86 microprocessor manufactured by AMD, available in speeds ranging from 266 to 550 MHz. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... Athlon is the brand name applied to a series of different x86 processors designed and manufactured by AMD. The original Athlon, or Athlon Classic, was the first seventh-generation x86 processor and, in a first, retained the initial performance lead it had over Intels competing processors for a significant... The AMD Duron is an x86-compatible computer processor manufactured by AMD. It was released in the summer of 2000 as a low-cost alternative to AMDs own Athlon processor and the Pentium III and Celeron processor lines from rival Intel. ...

However some benefit on performance could be gained through overclocking, by operating the Coppermine-128 CPUs with a 100 MHz FSB. Overclocking a 566 MHz Celeron at 850 MHz or a 600 MHz at 900 MHz gave the best results, since these systems usually proved stable without the requirement of additional cooling or overvolting. In particular a number of 600 MHz Celerons had been marketed which operated with a default core voltage of 1.7 V: when running on a 100 MHz FSB these processors proved to be even more stable if compared to previous batches of 600 MHz Celerons with core voltage of 1.5 V.

On January 3, 2001, Intel finally switched to a 100 MHz bus, and the performance improvement was startling. Although the Celeron 800 (the first of the 100 MHz bus parts) was still less powerful than the Duron, it was within a few percent and a perfectly viable option. All Celeron-128s from the 800 up used the 100 MHz Front Side Bus. Various models were made at 800, 850, 900, 950, 1000, and 1100 MHz. January 3 is the 3rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ...

The Coppermine-128 was used well into 2002. Early on it was popular in entry level desktops such as the eMachines eTower series. Often the processor would be permanently soldered onto the motherboard rather than being installed in a ZIF socket. Although always near the bottom of the performance table, it sometimes found a particular niche in low-power applications.

A Tualatin core Celeron 1200 MHz (Tualeron)

Image File history File links Tualeron_1200. ... Image File history File links Tualeron_1200. ...

Tualatin Celerons

Tualeron

The next series of Celerons were based on Pentium III Tualatin core, and made with a 0.13 micrometer process. They were nicknamed Tualeron — a portmanteau of the words Tualatin and Celeron. The series began with 1000 and 1100 MHz parts (which were given the extension "A" to their name to differentiate them from the Coppermine-128 of the same speed they replaced) and the line continued with 1200, 1300, and 1400 MHz chips. The Tualatin River The Tualatin Valley is a farming and suburban region southwest of Portland, Oregon in the United States. ...

Tualerons were identical to their fully-fledged Pentium III sibling, except that Tualerons used a 100 MHz bus rather than the 133 MHz bus of the Tualatin-core Pentium III processors. (The Tualeron also had higher latency in the L2 cache, but this never measurably affected performance.) They were excellent overclockers, since they had higher multipliers and users could put them on a 133 MHz bus easily. The Tualerons came with 256 KB cache, while the Tualatin-core Pentium III processors came with either 256 KB or 512 KB cache.

These last of the P6 core Celerons were little-noticed in the marketplace. For some time they were manufactured and sold in parallel with the Pentium 4-based Celerons that would eventually replace them. Most users assumed that the newer parts, with their much higher clockspeeds were significantly faster: they were not, and canny buyers snapped up the last of the P6 Tualatin Celerons, especially in notebook systems where the much lower power consumption translated directly into longer battery life.

Banias-512

This Celeron (sold under the Celeron M brand) is based on the Pentium M, and differs from its parent in that it has half the L2 cache, and does not support the clock-varying SpeedStep technology. It performs reasonably well compared to the Pentium M, but battery life is noticeably shorter on a Celeron M–based notebook than it is on a comparable Pentium M notebook. Introduced in March 2003, the Pentium M is an x86 architecture microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel. ... SpeedStepâ„¢ is a series of technologies (including SpeedStep, SpeedStep II, and SpeedStep III) built into some Intel processors. ...

The Celeron M processor is not considered to be part of the Centrino platform, regardless of what chipset and Wi-Fi components are used. Logo for Intel Centrino Mobile Technology Centrino (also called Intel® Centrino™ Mobile Technology) is a platform marketing initiative from Intel for a particular combination of CPU, mainboard chipset and wireless network interface in the design of a laptop personal computer. ... A chipset is a group of integrated circuits (chips) that are designed to work together, and are usually marketed as a single product. ... Wi-Fi (also WiFi, Wi-fi, Wifi, or wifi) is a set of product compatibility standards for wireless local area networks (WLAN) based on the IEEE 802. ...

Dothan-1024

A 90nm Celeron M with half of the L2 cache of the 90 nm (Dothan) Pentium Ms (twice the L2 cache of the 130nm Celeron Ms, though), and, like its predecessor, lacking SpeedStep.

Shelton (aka Banias-0)

The Shelton core is a Banias core without any L2 cache, and without SpeedStep. It is used in Intel's small form factor D845GVSH motherboard, intended for Asian and South American markets. The processor identifies itself as a "Intel Celeron 1.0B GHz", to differentiate it from the previous Coppermine-128 and "Tualeron" 1.0 GHz processors. World map showing Asia. ... South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ... A gigahertz is a billion hertz or a thousand megahertz, a measure of frequency. ...

NetBurst class Celerons

The NetBurst Microarchitecture is the name given to the new architecture that succeded the P6 microarchitecture in the x86 family of CPUs made by Intel. ...

Willamette-128

The next series of Celerons was based on the Pentium 4 "Willamette" core and were, in consequence, a completely different design. These are often known as the Celeron 4. They have 128 KB rather than 256 KB or 512 KB of L2 cache, but are otherwise very similar. Although the P4-based Celerons suffer considerably from their smaller caches, some speed grades have been favored in the enthusiast market, because like the old 300A, they can run well above their rated speeds.

Northwood-128

These Celerons are based on the "Northwood" core, and also have 128 KB of cache. They are functionally and featured the same as the Willamette-128 Celeron, and perform largely the same clock-for-clock.

Celeron D (Prescott-256)

The Celeron D processor is based on the Prescott core and has a larger (than the previous NetBurst Celerons) 256 KB cache. It also features a 533 MHz bus and SSE3, and will have a 3xx model number (compared to 5xx for Pentium 4s and 7xx for Pentium Ms and Pentium 4 Extreme Editions); specifically, they have been released thus far bearing model numbers of 350 (3.2 GHz), 345 (3.06 GHz) 340 (2.93 GHz), 335 (2.80 GHz), 330 (2.66 GHz), 325 (2.53 GHz), 320 (2.40 GHz), 315 (2.26 GHz), and 310 (2.13 GHz). They also have hardware-level support of Intel's EM64T technology by virtue of it also being built into the Prescott core, although the feature is disabled in all 3x0/3x5 models. It has been activated in all 3x1/3x6 models. The Intel Celeron D processor works with the Intel 845 and 865 chipset families. It should be noted that despite the 'D' suffix the Prescott-256 are not dual-core processors. New Intel Pentium 4 with HyperThreading logo Old Pentium 4 (with hyper-threading) brand logo, replaced by one above The Pentium 4 is a seventh-generation x86 architecture microprocessor produced by Intel and is their first all-new CPU design, called the NetBurst architecture, since the Pentium Pro of 1995. ... The NetBurst Microarchitecture is the name given to the new architecture that succeded the P6 microarchitecture in the x86 family of CPUs made by Intel. ... SSE3, also known by its Intel code name Prescott New Instructions (PNI), is the third iteration of the SSE instruction set for the IA-32 architecture. ... Extended Memory 64-bit Technology (EM64T) is Intels implementation of AMD64, a 64-bit extension to the IA-32 architecture. ...

Celeron D (Prescott-V)

The latest variant of the Celeron D is Prescott-256 with EM64T and XD Bit (eXecute Disable) enabled. Model numbers increase by 1 over the previous generation ( 330 -> 331 ) Extended Memory 64-bit Technology (EM64T) is Intels implementation of AMD64, a 64-bit extension to the IA-32 architecture. ... NX stands for No eXecute. ...

External links

• Budget CPU Shootout - Popular hardware review website Anandtech compares Celerons to other similarly priced CPUs
• Intel Pentium II Celeron Covington and Mendocino specifications
• Intel Pentium !!! Celeron Coppermine and Tualatin specifications
• Intel Pentium4 Celeron Willamette, Northwood and Prescott specifications
• Intel's Celeron M homepage
• Intel Celeron M Banias and Dothan specifications
• Intel Pentium II and Pentium III based Celerons at cpu-collection.de