Explanation needed Celeron ppga/fc-pga, Coppermine etc!

[Mr. K]

Hi.
I need a reasonable explanation of these chips.
I have two motherboards that I would like to install new CPUs into, but don't quite understand the terminology.

1) Tekram P6b40D-A5 Dual pentium II/Celeron supported Celerons up to 533, and PII up to 450 Mhz. out of the box. Latest BIOS flash says it now includes PIII coppermine support for CPUs over 600MHz.
2) Have an ABIT VA-6 Motherboard that originally supported PPGA celerons up to 533 and Pentium III to 600 MHz. Latest BIOS flash now allows Celerons up to 700 MHz.

Here is my problem. I was given a 566 FlipChip-PGA Celeron. Is it compatible with either of these boards?
can someone tell me if how these chips relate to one another?
Does coppermine = PIII only? Is this FC-PGA?
When the tekram BIOS says it will support coppermine, does this mean the FC-PGA chip I have will work?
When the original specs of the ABIT board said PPGA celerons only, does this mean that even with the faster speeds in the new BIOS that FC-PGA chips don't work? or are there PPGA celerons at 700 MHz?

This may sound confusing, but I am confused, so any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

Mr. K

[krusty the klown]

OK, any mobo that supports coppermine P3's will support CeleronII's (FC-PGA). These celerys are in speeds 533A, 566 and higher - these celerys are FC-PGA. They have the same SSE instruction set that the coppermine P3's have but only 128k of cache, as opposed to the P3's 256k. This is one difference between the celeryII and the P3: the other is that the celery2 WILL NOT multi-process!

The PPGA celery was made in speeds up to 533MHz. It has 128k cache, no SSE and WILL multi-process in a dual slot1 mobo if the slot1-to-socket (slocket) convertors support it.

If I were you, I'd put the 566 celery in the ABIT mobo (then overclock it to ~800+ MHz!) and buy either 2 celery 366 PPGA second hand that are known to do 550MHz, or buy 2 500/533 PPGA (NOT FC-PGA) celerys and 2 slockets that support dual processors and put them in the Tekram dual mobo.

If price is not an issue, replace the dual celerys with dual P3 coppermines (either slot1 or FC-PGA + slocket). BUT - you will have to be careful! Not all FC-PGA P3's will multi process!!!! As I understand it, newer ones will (made in 2000 and having stepping CB0). Verify this first, but I think all Slot1 P3's including Slot1 coppermine P3's will multi-process.

Just a summary:

Celery - made in slot1 (older ones) and socket 370 PPGA format. 0.25micron core, based on the P2 core, but having 128k full speed cache as opposed to 512k half speed cache. Speeds from 266->533MHz

CeleryII - FC-PGA (370 pins, but different pin-outs to the PPGA celerons: some mobos support both celerys). Speeds 533A, 566 and above. 0.18micron core, based on the coppermine P3, but with 128k full speed cache(as opposed to 256k full speed). SSE instruction set, but no multi-processing. Overclock like demons!

P3 - Katmai core (old) 0.25micron + 512k half speed cache. Slot1 only for the Katmai. All multi process. Coppermine - 0.18micron, 256k full speed cache + some older 512k half speed cache (avoid), SSE instruction set, some will multi process (verify before buying!). Available in Slot1 or FC-PGA flavours. 256k cache coppermines overclock like demons too!

[Mr. K]

Awesome reply!

Thanks for the good info. Now if I could only get the **** ABIT mobo working!!

Read all the reviews, and the Abit va6 came out strong, but won't work for me!!
If you have any advice please read my post in Technical Support titled
Help with Abit VA6 Mobo

Thanks for your advice here!

Mr. K

[krusty the klown]

Hehe! Glad it made some sense..... I had an atrocious hangover when I wrote it!! <IMG SRC="http://smilecwm.tripod.com/net4/frusty.gif" border=0>