Short life for sockets?

[RadiclDreamer]

I'm just curious as to why Intel, and maybe AMD, dont use them so im not sure have been having such short lives on CPU sockets? I've been doing IT work for 15 years or so and loved the days with say, the P4 where socket 478 lived through quite a few years. Recently it seems that a new socket is required about every year if you want to stay current with your CPU.

Just curious if there is a reason they dont "overdesign" the socket so it can be used for a little while.

 

[Yuriman]

I'm just curious as to why Intel, and maybe AMD, dont use them so im not sure have been having such short lives on CPU sockets? I've been doing IT work for 15 years or so and loved the days with say, the P4 where socket 478 lived through quite a few years. Recently it seems that a new socket is required about every year if you want to stay current with your CPU.

Just curious if there is a reason they dont "overdesign" the socket so it can be used for a little while.

In the case of moving from 1155 to 1150, there would be tons of power circuitry that would go unused on the board. You'd need a new chipset too. I think it's rather uncommon to buy a new motherboard to use with an old CPU - most people upgrade their CPUs and the motherboards come along with them.

The largest factor, I think, is the migration of more and more components onto the CPU package/die.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Fair enough, but what about the days where I could go through several generations of chip and keep the same socket? I miss them 🙁

 

[VivienM]

I'm just curious as to why Intel, and maybe AMD, dont use them so im not sure have been having such short lives on CPU sockets? I've been doing IT work for 15 years or so and loved the days with say, the P4 where socket 478 lived through quite a few years. Recently it seems that a new socket is required about every year if you want to stay current with your CPU.

Just curious if there is a reason they dont "overdesign" the socket so it can be used for a little while.

But there was never as much compatibility as you may remember, at least on the Intel side.

e.g. I had an Intel i850 board, a D850MV I believe, with RDRAM and the whole works running a Willamette socket 478 CPU. A new revision of that board was required to run a Northwood CPU... and that new revision sure couldn't handle a Prescott.

I also had an i865 board, Abit something... nice board, but I think it would only handle Prescotts and maaybe Northwoods, but not Willamettes.

Same thing with LGA775, one of Intel's longest-lived sockets. The 915/925 chipsets couldn't handle dual core chips. The 945 boards didn't have the voltage support for Conroe. Second-revision i975X boards added Conroe support, but couldn't properly handle 1333FSB and 45nm Penryns when those came out. Then at some point, either with the 3-series or 4-series chipsets, support for Netburst CPUs was dropped, and only Conroe/Penryn and their quad-core siblings were supported.

So, sure, the sockets may have lasted longer, but good luck actually getting forward compatibility.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Fair enough, but what about the days where I could go through several generations of chip and keep the same socket? I miss them 🙁

I think that you are seeing "innovation" at a faster pace than before. At least, in terms of onboard PCI-E, FIVR, stuff like that. AMD's sockets (AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+) certainly had long lives. FM1 didn't last more than one CPU generation, but FM2 lasted two, and gave birth to FM2+, which is backwards-compatible with FM2, so it spans three generations of CPU.

And then there's AM1, which, with a little luck and foresight, will also have a 2nd-gen "Beema"-derived AM1 chip later this year or early next year. Unsure how much longer AM1 is going to last.

 

[NTMBK]

The sockets keep changing because more and more stuff keeps getting integrated into the CPU/APU/SoC. PCIe controllers, integrated graphics, voltage regulators...

 

[ShintaiDK]

Keeping the same sockets for extended time is actually damaging the development CPU progress. Plus as said integration is not helping either.