Katmai Vs. Coppermine

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The name Coppermine is a bit misleading, as copper-interconnects are not used in the manufacturing process of this chip. The following table will show you the most important facts about both cores:

  Katmai (Pentium III) Coppermine (Pentium IIIE)
Clock Speeds at 100 MHz FSB 450, 500, 550, 600 MHz 550E, 600E, 650, 700, 750, 800, 850 MHz
Clock Speeds at 133 MHz FSB ("B") 533B, 600B MHz 533EB, 600EB, 667, 733, 800EB, 866, 1000 MHz
L2 Cache 512 kByte 256 kByte
L2 Cache Interface 64 Bit 256 Bit
L2 Clock Speed Half CPU speed Full CPU speed
L2 Associativity 4-way set 8-way set
CPU Voltage 2.0V 1.65V (1.7V at 1 GHz)

A Pentium IIIE makes use of the Coppermine core while a Pentium IIIB is specified for 133 MHz system bus speed. Thus a Pentium III that uses the Katmai core and is designed for 100 MHZ FSB won't have any letter behind the number, and A Coppermine-core running at 133 MHz FSB is called 'EB'. However, since all Pentium III processors that are faster than 600 MHz are automatically using Coppermine-cores, Intel does not add the 'E' to them. Was that confusing enough?

On the right you can see the two cache chips of the "old" Pentium III.

Coppermine has the smallest die size of today's microprocessors, making a socket version possible again. The main reason for the socket rebirth is of course the price: the PCB for the cartridge (SECC2) version is not required any more, making the CPU a few bucks cheaper. Motherboards with a FCPGA socket are also cheaper to produce than Slot1-motherboard, thus reducing the systems costs even a bit more.


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