Intel Alder Lake-S to use LGA1700 socket - LGA1200 only good for two generations?

Posted on Monday, May 04 2020 @ 11:15 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Intel logo
It appears the LGA1200 socket that will be introduced by the Intel Comet Lake-S architecture will be short-lived as there's already talk about LGA1700. LGA1200 is believed to be shared by at least Comet Lake-S and Rocket Lake-S, which will both come out this year, but next year's Alder Lake-S will reportedly switch to LGA1700.

Alder Lake-S is rumored to feature an up to sixteen core design, based on ARM's big.LITTLE principle. This means you get eight high-performance cores as well as eight smaller cores with high energy efficiency.

While LGA1200 is compatible with LGA115x coolers, which uses a 375mm x 375mm socket, LGA1700 uses a larger socket that measures 450mm x 375mm. This implies existing coolers may not be compatible with LGA1700. Citing Asian rumors, WCCF Tech writes LGA1700 will likely have a longer shelf life. It's believed that future chips on LGA1700 will introduce PCI Express 5.0 support - but DDR5 support should not be expected:
The LGA 1700 platform may get PCIe 5.0 support in a later revision but DDR5 support should not be expected. The LGA 1700 platform is also going to feature a higher number of PCIe lanes. Based on this information, we can see that the 500 extra pins would enable higher PCIe lane communication and a wider electrical configuration that will accommodate the hybrid chip architecture featured on Alder Lake CPUs. The larger chip size can also hint to a chiplet based design rather than a monolithic die.


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



Loading Comments