What is the difference betwenn "Slot A" and "Socket A" ?

[Peter Meister]

I am a bit confused about the difference of motherboard sockets
labelled "Slot A" and "Socket A".

Often it is written that AMD Athlon CPUS fit into SLot A
and at other places into Socket A.

So if Athlon CPUS fit into both types then the socket types must be the same ?

Or are there any differences ?
Which one is the "better" ?

Can both socket types hold AMD Athlon mobile resp AMD Athlon XP mobile CPUs ?

Peter

 

[Guy]

Socket A and slot A components are not interchangeable; you cannot fit
a socket A CPU in a slot A board, and vice-versa.

Socket A describes a class of AMD chip (Athlon XP) and the associated
motherboard's CPU socket. You can still buy these, but they have been
superseded by the Socket 775 (Intel) and 939 (AMD), etc. I have two of
these at home right now, running Athlon 3000 CPUs on Chaintech
motherboards. They run all current software short of cutting-edge
games.

The slot A motherboard's CPU connection is literally a slot, kind of
like a memory slot, into which you plug your CPU. The CPU card with
its cache and cooler look like a small brick about 4.5" x
2.5"(11 x 6 cm).

The Slot technology is obsolete. The slot design provided a way to add
cache memory to a CPU at the then-current die sizes. Slot A fit
certain AMD processors in the 386 and 486 series (I believe), and
Slot 1 (or "I?") fit certain Intel processors from the same
time period. This design co-existed with Socket A, and Socket 1 and 7
CPUs. Since the chipmakers have come up with ways to incorporate cache
memory directly on the chip dies, the slot-based CPUs are no longer
built.

I recommend you check the documentation / specs of any motherboard to
determine whether it will work with your CPU. Over the years, as
chipsets got better, later-model boards could handle more powerful
chips. Some earlier socket A boards can handle newer chips because of
BIOS flash upgrades, so BIOS version is also important. All of this
information should be in the board's documentation.