The lead story of this issue of EPC World highlights Advantech Embedded PCs' new Socket 370 Celeron^TM/Pentium^® III Biscuit PC, the PCM-9570. This board, being different from the previous Pentium^® and Pentium^® MMX^TM-class SBCs, brings home the debate on the merits of using a Celeron-based board design (utilizing either Slot 1 or Socket 370) verses a Pentium^® MMX^TM/AMD/IDT K6-based board design (utilizing Socket 7).

Socket 7 vs. Socket 370 Comparison Table

	Socket 7	Socket 370
Pentium	yes	no
Celeron/PIII	no	yes
2nd Cache Memory	External, 512 KB	On-processor, 128 KB (Celeron), 256 KB (Pentium III)
2nd Cache Memory Performance	66 MHz	Same speed as CPU
Mulitimedia Instruction Set	0 (Pentium) 57(PentiumMMX)	57 (Celeron), 57+70 (Pentium III)

Architecture

While Socket 7 boards were built for Pentium^® processors, Socket 370 boards are being built for the next generation of chips: the Pentium^® II and Pentium^® III processors. These new chips have on-processor 2nd Level Cache memory (unlike the Pentium^®. Because the cache memory is on the chip itself, it is able to operate at the same speed as the CPU. The cache of the earlier Pentium^® on the other hand, could only run at a speed of 66 MHz. In addition, once Socket 370 Pentium^® III processors become available, their expanded multimedia instruction set will enhance the performance of multimedia applications.

Performance

As for performance, the Socket 7 has obvious future limitations. Not so for the Socket 370. With the current Pentium^® II-level processors, speeds of up to 466 MHz with 66 FSB are achievable. By next year, though, if Intel follows through with its expected development plans of a Socket 370 Pentium^® III, the performance gap between the Socket 7 and Socket 370 will be even more apparent. These new Pentium^® III processors will have 256 KB of on-chip cache, operate at an FSB speed of 100 MHz (fully supported by Advantech's PCM-9570 - see story on front page). Initial processor speeds will be 500 MHz, and will increase from there in the year 2000.