It’s all change, but maybe not as fast as everyone thought Turns out that sockets will eventually be the order of the day for Intel, at least at the high end (as The Register has been pointing out for some considerable time). The mysterious Foster 32-bit chip, due to appear at the same time as Merced in late summer next year, will materialise in a PGA socket boasting no fewer than 504 pins which rather stuffs any plans for upgrading from a Slot 1 Pentium III. Merced itself will have a meagre 418 pins, while the Pentium III Xeon sticks with its 330 connector Slot 2 until sometime in late 2000 when it (and the 242 connector Slot 1 Pentium III) are due to be replaced by a future IA32 processor so secret it doesn’t even have a codename yet. Interestingly, OEM sources tell us that Intel plans to stick with Slot 1 and 2 – at least in the workstation end of the market – until at least Autumn of 2000. But that’s Intel’s plan today – it could all be different next week. ® See also Intel will socket it, we'll see