Introduction
Some people tried to interpret the meaning of the name "Slot-1" and came to the conclusion that it stands for Intel who wants to control this market all on one's own. After losing ground on the low cost sector, Intel is now starting a new attack to regain market shares with their Celeron processor and Slot-1, now with 128 kB L2 cache on-die (Celeron 300A and 333) which practically reaches the same performance as a Pentium II at the same clock speed. It's not exagerated to say that Intel has created some kind of own competitor for the Pentium II CPUs up to 333 MHz, for overclockers even up to the 450 MHz top model.
Intel tries to spread their CPUs almost emphatically and since the Intel chipsets are not always cheap enough for low end multimedia or gaming computers, somebody else has to provide an adequate product. Cheap chipsets of course lead to cheap motherboards, and the more cheap Slot-1 motherboards become available, the bigger ist the amount of CPUs Intel would be able to sell. SiS and VIA now have got all necessary licenses for a Slot-1 chipset. VIA is now shipping the Apollo Pro chipset and SiS offers the 5600/5595, both ready for 66 and 100 MHz FSB.
The end user benefits in two ways from Intel's efforts: First the price war could become harder again, since some people who were out for a K6-2 could change their mind and get a Slot-1 system, and second most low end CPUs like the Celeron are already fast enough for most applications. After this review you will know if the new chipsets could force you to come to some kind of compromise or if they can be recommended as real alternative to Intel's BX chipset.
