Monday, March 28th 2016
More AMD Socket AM4 Technical Details Emerge
More details of AMD's upcoming common socket for both its desktop APUs and high-end CPUs emerged from a recent article by Italian tech-site Bits-n-Chips. To begin with, AM4 will be an µOPGA (pin-grid array), in which the pins will continue to be located on the processor package, and contact points on the socket. The package will be square, and 40 mm in length, making it about as big as a current socket FM2+ package. It will have a pin-count of 1,331 pins, a big increase from the 942 pins of AM3+, and 906 pins of FM2+. AMD could continue to develop LGA sockets for its multi-socket capable Opteron processors based on the "Zen" architecture.
The AM4 platform layout will be functionally closer to that of the FM2+ than the AM3+. Besides the integrated memory controller, the northbridge will be entirely located on the processor die; and so the HyperTransport main system bus will be wired internally. Besides hundreds of electrical pins, the AM4 pin-map will consist of memory I/O, integrated graphics I/O, PCI-Express, and the chipset bus; besides other low-level system I/O interfaces. The memory controller on some of the first AM4 chips, such as "Summit Ridge," will natively support DDR4-2400 MHz, and DDR4-2933 MHz through overclocking.
Sources:
1, 2
The AM4 platform layout will be functionally closer to that of the FM2+ than the AM3+. Besides the integrated memory controller, the northbridge will be entirely located on the processor die; and so the HyperTransport main system bus will be wired internally. Besides hundreds of electrical pins, the AM4 pin-map will consist of memory I/O, integrated graphics I/O, PCI-Express, and the chipset bus; besides other low-level system I/O interfaces. The memory controller on some of the first AM4 chips, such as "Summit Ridge," will natively support DDR4-2400 MHz, and DDR4-2933 MHz through overclocking.
50 Comments on More AMD Socket AM4 Technical Details Emerge
Quad memory channel provides double the bandwidth of a dual channel setup. And since DDR4 moves alot more data then DDR3 specific, you proberly wont need anything higher then 2400MHz for now.
I'd go for quad channel with as low as possible latency's. AMD always had benefit from memory with extreme tight timings (DDR2 period with 3/3/3/9 for example).
This is what I was talking about in a previous post
You installed that on Asrock 939 boards with "Future CPU port"
And you don't need to worry about storing the damn socket protection cap for the CPU socket, you only have to store the CPU's package. Also, it's really easy to tell which pin is bent too much when the pins are on the CPU, whereas with pins on the socket... it's not as easy (you can't stare down the length of the rows of pins because your view will always be obstructed by something).
I've also seen an incorrectly mounted stock cooler (only 3 out of the 4 push-pins of the retention system properly attached to the motherboard) push the CPU over the pins in the socket and thus bend them. Now, that was back in the days of the Pentium 4, hopefully that is not an issue anymore (can't say I've tested this on newer LGA sockets, for obvious reasons). At any rate, this simply cannot happen when the pins are on the CPU instead of the socket.
Quite frankly, the only two advantages LGA sockets have when compared to classic sockets are the lower profile (well, usually, anyway) and the fact that if you damage one of the pins beyond repair, you brick the motherboard instead of the CPU. But otherwise, LGA sockets are a nightmare by comparison.
I have a liking for pins on the CPU. Installation is usually a breeze. They are getting very thin though which may be an issue with so many.