The first generation of Celeron's that Intel made had no level 2 (L2) cache which made them a joke of a processor. Cache stores frequently used data that can be accessed at high speeds, much faster than going to RAM (Random Access Memory), so you can see why it is so important for a processor to have level2 cache. Cache is used a lot of the time and can really speed up performance. The Celeron core that contained no level2 cache is called Covington. These were manufactured at speeds of 266 and 300mhz respectively. Then, Intel, needing to gain ground in the budget system war, proceeded to add 128kb of Full-Speed Level2 Cache to the processor. This provided a big performance boost over the first generation of celeron’s.

This chip’s name was 300a because the early Celeron 300's were made without a level2 cache. Celeron chips that are manufactured on the Mendocino core have 128kb of full speed L2 cache. The addition of the cache made this processor and continues to make it a huge success and will far into the future. Another thing that made it such a big success is that the Celeron 300a is one of the best overclockable chips that we have ever seen and there may never be a more overclockable processor than it. Most of the line of Celeron chips are overclockable to a degree but as higher clock speeds are attained less and less Overclockability will be available. (Below is a picture of the slot 1 celeron).

The Celeron's are currently manufactured in speeds ranging from 266mhz to 466mhz. Intel manufactures this chip with its advanced 0.25 micron CMOS process technology that it uses for its Pentium2/3 line of processors.

The Celeron's are not that much different than Intel's line of Pentium2 chips. There are some differences though and I will cover them in this paragraph. First off as I have mentioned earlier the Celeron is equipped with 128kb of full-speed Leve2 cache. This is contrary to the Pentium2's which have 512kb of level2 cache clocked at half the processor speed. Many people thought that this would cripple the Celeron compared to the Pentium2 but benchmarks have shown that this is not the case.

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