As of the launch of Pentium II, Intel started to produce its processors in the form of cartridge instead of sockets. This was the way found by Intel to transfer L2 cache, which was located on the motherboard, to the inside of the processor. In fact, L2 cache was not built-in the processor, but soldered on the same printed circuit board of the processor.

Intel had already tried before to bring L2 cache to the inside of the processor with Pentium Pro. The problem was that this solution was expensive, since there were two cores installed in the same package: one with the Pentium Pro processor and the other with 256 KB, 512 MB or 1 MB of L2 cache.

The cartridge idea didn’t work out and, in August, 1998, Intel started to produce its processors using sockets once again. The processors based on cartridge were expensive because they demanded retention mechanisms and bigger and more elaborated coolers.

Celeron PPGA was a Celeron A model developed to be installed in a socket instead of a slot. It had PPGA packaging and was installed in socket 370 motherboards. Celeron PPGA was also based in Pentium II Deschutes core processor and could be found at speeds of 300 MHz, 333 MHz, 366 MHz, 400 MHz, 433 MHz, 466 MHz, 500 MHz and 533 MHz.

Figure 3: Celeron A with PPGA package.

Celeron PPGA can be installed in slot 1 motherboards through an adaptor board, presented in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Adaptor board to install the Celeron PPGA on a slot 1 motherboard.

Main features of Celeron PPGA were:

• Based on Pentium II with Deschutes core
• Manufacturing process: 0.25 μm or 0.18 μm
• L1 cache: 32 KB total, 16 KB for instructions and 16 KB for data
• L2 cache: 128 KB
• External clock rate: 66 MHz
• Packaging: PPGA
• Socket: Socket 370