socket : Computer Hardware Buyers’ Glossary

by Roedy Green ©1997-2008 Canadian Mind Products
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socket

Expensive chips such as the Pentium CPU plug into connectors rather than being soldered in. Intel has recently patented the connectors it uses to block its competitors from fitting their CPUs into Intel-compatible sockets. Slots are long thin sockets, much like a PCI slot. Sockets are usually square with holes for the pins to poke into.

Type	Socket Speed	Where used	Advantages
socket 7	100 MHz	Pentium, AMD K6, Cyrix 6x86, Winchip
slot 1 SECC2	100 MHz	Pentium II
slot 2	100 MHz	Pentium II
mobile slot	100 MHz	Pentium II portables
slot A	100 MHz	AMD K7, AMD K6-III
SEC Single Edge Contact Cartridge	100 MHz	Intel Pentium III Xeon
slot 370	133 MHz	Celeron
socket PPGA Plastic Pin Grid Array	133 MHz	Celeron
socket 370 FC-PGA Flip Chip Pin Grid Array	133 MHz	Pentium III	Silicon rests against the top of the chip, near the heatsink
slot 1 SECC2	133 MHz	Pentium III
socket 8	200 MHz	Pentium Pro
socket A	200 MHz	AMD Duron, no longer manufactured.
slot A	200 MHz	AMD Athlon
socket 462	200 MHz	Intel and AMD
socket 940	333 MHz	AMD K8, Opteron
socket 478	533 MHz	Intel Pentium IV
socket 604	533 MHz	Intel Xeon
Socket 754	?	AMD Sempron
Socket 939	?	AMD Athlon and Opteron
AM2	2 GHz?	AMD Sempron, Athlon and Opteron. Supports DDR-2.

There number of different sockets have exploded. You pretty well have to buy the CPU, motherboard and RAM at the same time to make sure they are compatible. For more information about individual Intel processors see these two pdf documents on Pentum III and Celeron.

AMD
CPU
Intel

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