A leaked chipset block-diagram for the upcoming Intel W680 chipset platform sheds light on a possible major change in the way Intel sells workstation-grade processors. The Socket LGA1700-based W680 motherboards will support 12th Gen Core processors for Workstation, and the company makes no mention of the Xeon-W series. Tech enthusiast Wild Cracks points to a possibility we agree with—that Intel is upcycling the Xeon-W series to premium workstation-grade processors, possibly derived from the enterprise-segment silicon, such as the upcoming "Sapphire Rapids," and away from being just a client "Alder Lake" processor with ECC memory support enabled when paired with a W680 chipset motherboard.

If this theory holds true, then the Xeon W (2-channel memory platform) could make way for the "W" brand extension for 12th Gen Core processors. At this point we don't know how the "W" is used, whether it's something along the lines of "Core W9-12900" or "Core i9-12900W." The former sounds more plausible, as "12900W" could have a negative connotation with regards to its power. In terms of connectivity, the W680 offers much of what the top Z690 does, except x8/x8 multi-GPU support. The diagram doesn't give out any information about CPU overclocking support, although memory overclocking support is very likely.