Roadmap Outlines Intel LGA4677 With PCIe 5.0 Support For 2021

Kazuki Kasahara, author at PC Watch, has snapped a photograph of a roadmap that seemingly reveals Intel's next-gen enterprise LGA4677 socket.

If you don't recall, TE Connectivity designs and produces the LGA4189 socket for Intel's Ice Lake-SP and Cooper Lake processors, which haven't launched yet. The company's latest roadmap already points to a new socket. The LGA4677 socket, Intel's biggest yet, will succeed the LGA4189 socket. Based on the timeline, the LGA4677 socket is likely designed to house Intel's Sapphire Rapids and subsequently Granite Rapids chips.

Sapphire Rapids is rumored to be based on the 10nm++ process node and comes out in 2021 while Granite Rapids allegedly rides on the 7nm process node and lands in 2022. Both families reside within the Eagle Stream platform, which likely utilizes the LGA4677 socket revealed today.

Another leaked roadmap hinted Sapphire Rapids and future enterprise processors would support the PCIe 5.0 interface and DDR5 memory modules. TE Connectivity's roadmap confirms the first, but the latter is still unproven. The LGA4677 socket has 488 more pins than the LGA4189 socket. The extra pins will obviously allow Intel to bring new features, such as the aforementioned PCIe 5.0 support, new interconnect technologies, and more, so DDR5 support isn't completely off the table.