Slot 2 refers to the physical and electrical specification for the 330-lead Single Edge Contact Cartridge (or edge-connector) used by some of Intel's Pentium II Xeon and certain models of the Pentium III Xeon.

When first introduced, Slot 1

Slot 1

Slot 1 refers to the physical and electrical specification for the connector used by some of Intel's microprocessors, including the Pentium Pro, Celeron, Pentium II and the Pentium III...

 Pentium II

Pentium II

The Pentium II brand refers to Intel's sixth-generation microarchitecture and x86-compatible microprocessors introduced on May 7, 1997. Containing 7.5 million transistors, the Pentium II featured an improved version of the first P6-generation core of the Pentium Pro, which contained 5.5 million...

s were intended to replace the Pentium and Pentium Pro

Pentium Pro

The Pentium Pro is a sixth-generation x86 microprocessor developed and manufactured by Intel introduced in November 1, 1995 . It introduced the P6 microarchitecture and was originally intended to replace the original Pentium in a full range of applications...

 processors in the home, desktop, and low-end SMP

Symmetric multiprocessing

In computing, symmetric multiprocessing involves a multiprocessor computer hardware architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single shared main memory and are controlled by a single OS instance. Most common multiprocessor systems today use an SMP architecture...

 markets. The Pentium II Xeon, which was aimed at multiprocessor workstations and servers, was largely similar to the later Pentium IIs, being based on the same P6

P6 (microarchitecture)

The P6 microarchitecture is the sixth generation Intel x86 microarchitecture, implemented by the Pentium Pro microprocessor that was introduced in November 1995. It is sometimes referred to as i686. It was succeeded by the NetBurst microarchitecture in 2000, but eventually revived in the Pentium M...

 Deschutes core, aside from a wider choice of L2 cache ranging from 512 to 2048 KB and a full-speed off-die L2 cache (the Pentium 2 used cheaper 3rd party SRAM chips, running at 50% of CPU speed, to reduce cost).

Because the design of the 242-lead Slot 1 connector did not support the full-speed L2 cache of the Xeon, an extended 330-lead connector was developed. This new connector, dubbed 'Slot 2', was used for Pentium 2 Xeons and the first two Pentium III Xeon cores, codenamed 'Tanner' and 'Cascades'. Slot 2 was finally replaced with the Socket 370

Socket 370

Socket 370 is a common format of CPU socket first used by Intel for Pentium III and Celeron processors to replace the older Slot 1 CPU interface on personal computers. The "370" refers to the number of pin holes in the socket for CPU pins...

 with the Pentium III

Pentium III

The Pentium III brand refers to Intel's 32-bit x86 desktop and mobile microprocessors based on the sixth-generation P6 microarchitecture introduced on February 26, 1999. The brand's initial processors were very similar to the earlier Pentium II-branded microprocessors...

 Tualatin; some of the Tualatin Pentium IIIs were packaged as 'Pentium III' and some as 'Xeon', despite the fact they were identical.