Why higher frequency Mobile Pentium II have less L2 cache

michaelweaser

I was looking at this website http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Pentium-II/Intel-Mobile%20Pentium%20II%20233%20MMC-1%20-%20PMD23305002AB.html and only the lower frequency pentium II's have 512k of L2 cache? from 233 mhz to 300 mhz , and even a few of them have only 256k of L2 cache as well. Once you get from 300 mhz , 333 mhz to 400 mhz, they all have only 256k of L2 cache? What is the reason for this? Did Intel decide not to put more L2 cache in higher frequency or something like that?

calvinb

Early P3s/late P2s on both mobile and desktop had twice as much cache, but it was also half as fast, essentially. Coppermine later switched using the less but faster configuration.

As for mobile, cache can be very power hungry - it may have been reduced due to that.

pcgeek

Yeah, but if you want high speed and 512kb of cache memory, OC the slower models to 400mhz. Do not forget to keep it as cold as possible.