Sources close to Intel confirmed today that the first iteration of its 370-pin slot will appear at the very beginning of next year, as part of the chip giant's two pronged attack on its competition. But Intel is not -- as yet -- dropping its Slot One design for the Celeron, the sources confirmed. The first 370-pin device will appear in the first week of January at a 366MHz clock speed and with the Mendocino core and will be supported by a number of motherboard vendors, including Gigabyte. A distributor close to Intel's plans said: "370-pin is definitely going to be where the volume is. Gigabyte has gone predominantly 370-pin but that could easily change within the timeframe." He said that it was likely that Intel was taking advantage of the fact that other motherboard manufacturers, because of their material planning and supply of chip sets, were still making Slot One designs. It takes some board manufacturers three or four months to switch their plans, he said. The arrival of the 370-pin socket in volume made it far easier for Intel to differentiate its offerings into the budget, Pentium II midrange and Xeon categories. Intel refused to comment on pricing or other details of the launch in early January. ®