Intel created the Slot 1 architecture for it's Pentium II line of CPUs and patented it so that competitors wouldn't be able to make CPU's compatible with Slot 1 motherboards. While it didn't seem to throw the competition much, quite a few Slot 1 motherboard owners weren't too happy a few years later when Intel switched to Socket 370 for the Pentium III. Suddenly there was no CPU upgrade path for their hardware as the only company allowed to make Slot 1 chips wasn't!
Enter the slotket: A clever little device that fits into the obsolete Slot 1 on your motherboard and adapts it to work with the new Socket 370 CPUs. Combine this with solid BIOS updates and an older motherboard was able to continue to running the latest games for years after it might otherwise have been retired with a terminal case of CPU speed bottleneck.
See also: slocket