[GP] Details about AM4 socket

[BirSaNN]

Details about AM4 socket

 

This year AMD is preparing a processor revolution. And I hope he's not as quiet as his name, Zen. But besides performance, it also wants to simplify things. Have one desktop socket, high or low end, with or without integrated graphics. And this is called socket AM4.

 

But even if the name resembles the current skAM3 + used by the Piledriver-Vishera processors, it has nothing to do with it. You do not expect any retrocompatibility. SkAM4 will have many more pins, 1331 in number, and will use a micro Organic Pin Grid Array format uOPGA. That means much smaller plastic sockets out of which the pins protrude.

 

But now the OPGA system is used, so the real difference is given by this micro, because more pins (about 40% more) need to fit in a similar surface. What does this mean for us? A potential increased fragility. But until we were afraid that the socket will break down when installing the processor, let us remember that the same thing was said when the LGA was preparing to enter the stage. And it was not the case.

 

On the other hand, the 1331 pins are enough for an official 140 W power consumption. Even if initially processors will not need that much. The first CPUs that will use skAM4 are the Bristol Ridge family (up to four Excavator cores and integrated graphics on 28 nm) expected somewhere in the second quarter of this year 2016. After that, in the winter, they will arrive and the much-anticipated Summit Ridge models (up to eight Zen cores on 14 nm FinFET). And all will be limited to a 95 W TDP.