Intel Pentium III E FC-PGA (Socket-370)

The FC-PGA Pentium III E (from hereon referred to as the FC-PGA) is intended to be a contender in the high performance lower cost market. The reason for the inclusion in the lower cost market as opposed to the low-cost market is because the FC-PGA is not Intel’s low-cost chip; that’s still the Celeron. Instead, the FC-PGA is a more affordable Pentium III E (courtesy of its socketed design) that is only available at lower clock speeds in order to encourage users that want the added speed to go after the more expensive Slot-1 Pentium III E CPUs.

Eventually, Intel will ramp up the production of FC-PGA parts and virtually replace the SECC-2 parts in Intel’s production line by the end of 2000 although by the end of 2000 the FC-PGA parts will most likely be on a different socket platform (not Socket-370).

The current FC-PGA parts are available in two clock speed flavors, 500MHz and 550MHz, both running off of the 100MHz FSB. Both of these CPUs operate at a 1.60v core voltage as opposed to the 1.65v core of their Slot-1 counterparts, and both of them are Socket-370 compatible.

The term "Socket-370 compatible" does not mean that the FC-PGA will work in all Socket-370 motherboards, it just means that it is compatible with the Socket-370 interface (they will plug into a Socket-370 socket). The requirements a motherboard must meet in order for the FC-PGA to operate properly are as follows: the board must feature a Socket-370 interface, the board must support the 1.60v core voltage and finally, and most importantly, the board must also support the VRM 8.4 DC-DC Converter Guidelines. While most Socket-370 motherboards that are out on the market today meet the first two requirements, it is the third that will keep the FC-PGA out of most of our systems.