Intel will launch lga4677 socket for server processors with PCI-e 5.0 . in 2021

Intel will introduce the lga4677 socket in 2021 as a successor to the current lga3647 socket and the upcoming lga4189 variant. It concerns a socket for Xeon processors; the accompanying Eagle Stream platform gets PCI-E 5.0 and DDR5 support.

Intel itself has not yet given any details about the new socket, but TE Connectivity, a company that produces sockets, has put information about lga4677 online. Twitter user Kazuki Kasahera shows a picture of a roadmap showing the new socket and @momomo_us discovered a technical document of the lga4677 socket on the TE website.

The new lga4677 socket will get 4677 pins as the name implies. That is a considerable increase compared to the current lga3647 socket, which is used for high-end Xeon processors. Currently, these are the Cascade Lake-SP processors, which have a maximum of 56 cores.

The extra pins can be used for the extra bandwidth needed for pci-e 5.0. Intel can also use the extra pins for other I/O properties, such as more memory channels. The socket is part of the Eagle Stream platform, which also gets ddr5 support. The lga4677 socket should be on the market in 2021. By then, Intel should be releasing its first 7nm products. It is not yet known whether 7nm processors will also come to the socket.

The lga4189 socket will be released next year in combination with a platform that has PCI-e 4.0 support. TE showed a prototype of this socket. Information about this was already announced in September. The lga4189 socket is made for Intel’s upcoming Cooper Lake and Ice Lake server processors. Those chips are made at 14nm and 10nm respectively.