Intel may be developing a new socket for the server sector.
An image of an unknown socket presumably designed for Intel’s processors has been published by @Yuuki_Ans, a renowned hardware leaker. The socket in question is called LGA4710 and might be destined for special-use processors from Intel or custom ‘off roadmap’ system-on-chip designs.
The published images depict a socket entitled ‘LGA4710-2’ and ‘LGA-4677 LGA-4710.’ Lotes, a major maker of CPU sockets and other connectors, manufactured the socket.
Given that the LGA4710 socket is physically the same as LGA4677, perhaps the main question is why Intel would design a new socket for a new processor form factor aimed at the same applications as existing processors. While we are not exactly in the business of guesses, we can provide a few possibilities for Intel’s LGA4710 package.
Typically, new sockets are made to enable new processors with different power and connectivity requirements. Therefore, LGA4710 can just enable higher thermal design power, or the support of different connectivity features, such as a newer version of PCIe or CXL. Since the new processor form factor is physically the same as Intel’s LGA4677 and it is possible to install an LGA4677 processor into a 4710-pin socket and vice versa, power requirements of LGA4710 processors should not be too different because otherwise, chips might end up damaged.
An attentive reader has probably noticed by now that we purportedly avoided calling products in an LGA4710 form factor a CPU, which is for a reason: Intel sells a boatload of data center and workstation products, so it may use the LGA4710 form factor for a next-generation workstation or special-purpose server system-on-chips, CPUs, FPGAs, or even GPUs. For example, the company is working with Ericsson on custom chips for RAN applications. In addition, Intel also makes custom processors for Meta’s Facebook, which runs vast data centers that cost about a billion dollars each.
For now, it is hard to say what LGA4710 is. The number of possibilities is vast, but we assume that the answer should be quite simple.