ZDN has the latest word on what the future holds for Intel's Pentium III and Celeron line up, as well as a quick bit in AMD's market segment strategy. Looks like the Celeron finally "grows up" getting those SSE instructions, as well as hitting the 100MHz bus. (Something we've been doing for over a year already!). Thanks Dest.

With this transition, Celeron will receive a performance increase thanks to a number of features that are now reserved for high-end Pentium III processors. The list includes Streaming SIMD Extensions, a set of instructions for processing multimedia, along with support for a 100MHz system bus, sources said.

Celeron will also adopt a new packaging design, called "flip chip," pin grid array for the 370 pin Socket 370. Flip chip packaging moves the pins that attach the chip to the motherboard from its edges to its center, making for a shorter electrical path and a shorter thermal path, and increasing performance and heat dissipation, sources said.