Intel LGA-7529 Socket for "Sierra Forest" Xeon Processors Pictured

[AleksandarK]

Intel's upcoming LGA-7529 socket designed for next-generation Xeon processors has been pictured, thanks to Yuuki_Ans and Hassan Mujtaba. According to the latest photos, we see the massive LGA-7529 socket with an astonishing 7,529 pins placed inside of a single socket. Made for Intel's upcoming "Birch Stream" platform, this socket is going to power Intel's next-generation "Sierra Forest" Xeon processors. With Sierra Forest representing a new way of thinking about Xeon processors, it also requires a special socket. Built on Intel 3 manufacturing process, these Xeon processors use only E-cores in their design to respond to AMD EPYC Bergamo with Zen4c.

The Intel Xeon roadmap will split in 2024, where Sierra Forest will populate dense and efficient cloud computing with E-cores, while its Granite Rapids sibling will power high-performance computing using P-cores. This interesting split will be followed by the new LGA-7529 socket pictured below, which is a step up from Intel's current LGA-4677 socket with 4677 pins used for Sapphire Rapids. With higher core densities and performance targets, the additional pins are likely to be mostly power/ground pins, while the smaller portion is picking up the additional I/O of the processor.



20:20 UTC: Updated with motherboard picture of dual-socket LGA-7529 system, thanks to findings of @9550pro lurking in the Chinese forums.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Arco]

That's no socket. It's a football field!

 

[Chaitanya]

Too many lines to keep track off, its worse than navigating through an actual rainforest at night.

 

[PerfectWave]

Ecores vs Epyc lol

 

[bobbybluz]

I think I saw a bent pin in the right upper quadrant.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Sierra Forrest? What a name I love it and the literal image it generates in my mind a Forrest of Sierra's.

What a piece of tech, imagine handmaking the prototypes of that monster.

Let me know when I can grab mine Intel.

 

[wNotyarD]

Yay, another new Intel roadmap!

 

[qubit]

That's incredible.

@AleksandarK you've switched between 7529 and 7592 in the article, but 7592 is correct.

 

[JAB Creations]

New socket = new motherboard.
New motherboard != upgrade.

That is called a rebuild.

Go take a lot at those Intel motherboards and start counting all the Intel chips that you can see and then the device drivers for Intel things like Nic and WIFI.

With ~80% of the market still blindly buying Intel how are they "missing" their goals?

AMD may fumble from time to time though I've never seen them make an effort to screw over their customers.

 

[Tropick]

Too many lines to keep track off, its worse than navigating through an actual rainforest at night.

Don't worry, the inevitable delays will give us plenty of time to figure out which product line is which

 

[TheLostSwede]

Someone in a forum in xina posted a picture of the full board.
Good luck finding a suitable case.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1620413976382443523

 

[sepheronx]

Who needs a case?

 

[TheLostSwede]

Who needs a case?

You're at least wearing noise cancelling headphones, right?

 

[Wirko]

With higher core densities and performance targets, the additional pins are likely to be mostly power/ground pins, while the smaller portion is picking up the additional I/O of the processor.

There are 12 memory channels as it appears, compared to Sapphire Rapids' 8. Those too use a lot of pins.

 

[sepheronx]

You're at least wearing noise cancelling headphones, right?

I'm near deaf so I'm good.

 

[Zareek]

These server sockets are getting absurd! You could fit an entire PC into the space that socket takes up. I'm sure there are a few that are smaller.

 

[mashie]

A few more years and we can revive the classic "Over 9000" jokes.

 

[pressing on]

These server sockets are getting absurd! You could fit an entire PC into the space that socket takes up. I'm sure there are a few that are smaller.

There are, but for example AMD latest server socket - SP5 - is 6096 pins and that's a step up from the previous server socket that had 4094 contacts. There are good reasons for the increase such as 12 memory channels instead of 8 and DDR5 memory instead of DDR4.

 

[Minus Infinity]

This is definitely one cpu you won't see for the Forest

 

[Chaitanya]

Don't worry, the inevitable delays will give us plenty of time to figure out which product line is which

By the time fog clears we will be back to drowning in lakes.

 

[The_Enigma]

Someone in a forum in xina posted a picture of the full board.
Good luck finding a suitable case.

Spoiler

https://twitter.com/x/status/1620413976382443523

Looks like a typical server MB to me, easy to find. Those are OCP slots on the back, also semi-standard now days.

Here is a Xeon server board from a couple generations ago for example:

Spoiler

And here is an AMD Zen4 Epyc 1P board:

Spoiler

In that one though the OCP socket is off to the side hidden by the monitor and they have ten EDSFF slots for solid state drives where the Xeon board has its OCP slots.
Servers are just VERY different these days than the typical PC most of us know. Far longer, and much more dense components. For anyone wondering what the heck an "OCP slot" or "EDSFF" is:

OCP NIC 3.0 Form Factors The Quick Guide

We discuss the OCP NIC 3.0 form factors in a quick guide for those that deploy servers and need to understand which version is being used

www.servethehome.com

E1 and E3 EDSFF to Take Over from M.2 and 2.5 in SSDs

We take a look at the E1 and E3 EDSFF form factors poised to take over in the data center from M.2 and 2.5in in the next generation

www.servethehome.com

 

[HansRapad]

New socket = new motherboard.
New motherboard != upgrade.

That is called a rebuild.

Go take a lot at those Intel motherboards and start counting all the Intel chips that you can see and then the device drivers for Intel things like Nic and WIFI.

With ~80% of the market still blindly buying Intel how are they "missing" their goals?

AMD may fumble from time to time though I've never seen them make an effort to screw over their customers.

I'll put this here, and start seeing the reaction of AMD cultist

AMD commits to 'long-term' support for sTRX4 CPU socket used with third-gen Threadripper

Third-generation Ryzen Threadripper CPUs were announced last week. On Friday, AMD posted a video spotlight on the HEDT Treadripper 3960X and 3970X (watch below), both based on...

www.techspot.com

AMD screw their customer, not just Intel,

Intel today failure is not 2020 issue, it is 2015 failure that still hurting them to this days, it will be couple hard year for intel since the management before Bob Swan is really bad,

 

[InVasMani]

This thing is massive what the core count and power draw on it!!? That's a lot of memory bandwidth and memory capacity as well, but DDR5 so that'll cost you more than "a kidney" what else do you have to offer!!?

By the time fog clears we will be back to drowning in lakes.

That sounds like the title of Steven King horror novel.

You're at least wearing noise cancelling headphones, right?

They'll be needing a pair it's going to be a long afternoon of screaming.

 

[Zareek]

There are, but for example AMD latest server socket - SP5 - is 6096 pins and that's a step up from the previous server socket that had 4094 contacts. There are good reasons for the increase such as 12 memory channels instead of 8 and DDR5 memory instead of DDR4.

It's actually pretty impressive, IMO. These x86 server chips are starting to look like the IBM mainframe monsters more and more every year. I'm just amazed how much the industry has changed over the last 30 years. I still remember picking up my first computer shopper catalog and drooling over the 486DX chips and then first gen Pentiums.

 

[The Von Matrices]

These server sockets are getting absurd! You could fit an entire PC into the space that socket takes up. I'm sure there are a few that are smaller.

It's all about integration. If that leaked image is correct, it looks like Intel has taken AMD's strategy and eliminated the external chipset. So while the CPU socket is bigger, modern server motherboards have only the CPU socket and lots of slots but no other chips so they are overall smaller than they used to be.