Without the cache, the enervated Celeron chip was such a slug that many major PC makers refused to build systems around it.

- Here are the most important similarities and differences between the Pentium 4 and the Celeron chips coming out today:

Core - The Celeron chip is based on a Pentium 4 core.

Sempron is a 32-bit processor aimed at competing with Intel's Celeron chips.

Cache - Celeron chips have less cache memory than Pentium 4 chips do.

That will create a clear difference between the high-end Pentium III and the low-end Celeron chips.

The cheaper Celeron chip, it turns out, is perfectly fine for most home computer users.

(They integrate a performance booster called an L2 cache, which earlier Celeron chips lacked.)

Last week, the company rolled out its new 266-megahertz Celeron chip.

And Intel's failure with the Celeron chip means it must go back to the drawing board.