Multiprocessor Systems: Dual Celerons

The same trend carries over into, you guessed it, computer hardware purchases. When building a new system from scratch you'll probably cut a few corners here and there, sometimes without even noticing it. You'll opt for a somewhat smaller case, a slightly less powerful speaker set, and most likely, that 24" Sony monitor won't be finding its way onto your desktop anytime soon either. Almost by definition, we are all, as humans, inherently creative in our own unique ways, and by looking around at the methods used to cut costs when buying computer parts, there is a definite level of creativity that goes in to every single purchase where cost is a consideration. The only real area where there has been a general lack of creativity in terms of "cost management" (aka not buying that 136GB hard drive you've always wanted) is in the high-end workstation/server market. The reason here is simple as well, high-end has always meant high-price, and if a company can get away with charging an arm and a leg for a "high-end" solution, then you better believe that they're going to charge an arm and a leg for that very solution.

Luckily, there happened to be an individual that managed to discover one of the very rare ways of being creative with cutting costs in the high-end workstation/server market. His name? Tomohiro Kawada of Kikumaru's Technical Laboratory. His claim to fame? Discovering and successfully implementing the modifications necessary for allowing Intel's "low-end" (and thus, low-cost) Celeron processor to run in a multiprocessor configuration. Unfortunately, Kawada's method for enabling multiprocessor support on the original Slot-1 Celeron and Celeron A processors was a bit over the edge for most users who didn't want to risk damaging their processors to try the neat trick. The trick involved physically "shaving" off, or drilling into, the actual PCB (Printed Circuit Board) of the Celeron processor as well as a number of other modifications to the processor in order to achieve success. While your average engineer would get a kick out of Kawada's method, it was quite impractical for the everyday user to explore.