

Intel partners reveal plans for new processor socket designs











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please change your socket design!
By Etern205 on 11/28/2007 10:47:59 PM , Rating: 2
During the days when pins we're located on the processor, users are advised to handle them with great care because if a pin is bent (it's really hard to straighten it back out even with the lead pencil trick) or broken off, then your toast.

When the LGA cpus came out I was extremely happy that the cpu became pin-less, but I had never thought that the pins are now built into the socket. And here lies the same exact problem only this time it's the other way around. This I find it annoying because lets say you got a board online and when it arrived you notice there is a bent or damage pin on the socket. Now when you try to return it, the company may denied it because they think all of their products shipped out are free of defects and you physically damaged it yourself.

Since Intel is coming out with a new socket then it would be greatful if they can redesign the type of socket design instead of using this pressure point type system.

I was thinking about something like this, a socket where its pins are made out in a solid cylinders or solid pyramids with its top cut off so it's flat.

Another is with the speed of PCIe 2.0, would it help if they can create a socket to use those like the design Intel did with their slot 1 used for thier Pentium 2 and some of their Pentium 3s?

By DerwenArtos12 on 11/29/2007 6:07:28 AM , Rating: 4
As for creating a solid pin on the socket it would create a lot of problems with seating the CPU properly not when first installed but, when being held in place by whatever retention system, the current designs squeeze the packaging against the socket and the pins stay suspended. Having a hard surface would be much more stressful on the packaging and i would almost guarantee the package would warp.

Slot designs are simply inefficient, both thermally and cost-wise. Thermally because they tend to create a dead-spot for air and because you simply cannot secure the card well enough to attach a heat sink large enough. cost wise because a socket design is much smaller, requiring less silicon and because with the number of leads continually going up the cards would have to be MASSIVE to allow for enough leads. For comparison, PCI-E x16 has just over 80 total leads, imagine trying to make that 715 or 775 or 940 and that not even server processors, how about 1300 leads for server CPU's. Just completely infeasible.


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