Intel's Alder Lake-S CPU pictured, Designed for Intel's Future LGA1700 Socket

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By Aaron Klotz
published

It's a big boy

(Image credit: Videocardz)

Intel's future 12th Generation Alder Lake-S CPU is purportedly pictured in a recent article by Videocardz, showcasing a new larger form factor designed to fit into the future LGA 1700 socket. Intel reportedly will use the LGA 1700 socket for two generations of desktop CPUs after Alder Lake-S.

Alder Lake-S will be Intel's successor to the 11th-gen Rocket Lake processors that come out next year. Alder-Lake will feature a hybrid architecture involving high-performance Golden Cove CPU cores paired with low-power Gracemount cores for increasing power efficiency. It will be on Intel's latest 10nm SuperFIN process and marks the first major architectural change since Skylake debuted in 2016.

The socket dimensions for LGA 1700 will be 37.5mm x 45mm, which is about 7.5mm taller than Intel's current LGA 1200 socket. Presumably, the bigger size is to make way for larger core counts than Rocket Lake. For instance, we've already seen hints of a 16-core 32-thread Alder Lake CPU that might be on the way.

Videocardz says DDR5 support should be coming to Alder Lake as well. This is not confirmed, but DDR5 is ready for adoption, and SK Hynix has begun production on DDR5 RAM modules already. So it is possible.

Among many other announcements (full breakdown here), Intel announced at its Architecture Day 2020 that the company would release its Alder Lake-S processors for the desktop PC in 2021. That means they'll be a fast follower to the 14nm Rocket Lake processors that land in Q1, 2020.  

Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Freelance News Writer

Aaron Klotz is a freelance writer for Tom’s Hardware US, covering news topics related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

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19 Comments Comment from the forums
  • steelfox
    new day ,new intel socket.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    steelfox said:
    new day ,new intel socket.
    I'd gladly take a new motherboard for every new CPU generation over having an unpredictable mess of backward/forward compatibility to sort out. I don't upgrade until I can get well over twice the performance for my money and at the rate things are moving now, that takes nearly 10 years.
    Reply
  • nofanneeded
    What happened to intel HEDT CPU ??? no one is talking about any HDET from intel recently not even with PCIe 4.0
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    nofanneeded said:
    What happened to intel HEDT CPU ??? no one is talking about any HDET from intel recently not even with PCIe 4.0
    Intel has been struggling to catch up with demand for 10-14nm parts for years now, which coincides with how long Intel has stopped launching new HEDT parts. Chances are Intel has shelved HEDT plans until it can get ahead of demand for server and other higher priority parts.
    Reply
  • TerryLaze
    InvalidError said:
    Intel has been struggling to catch up with demand for 10-14nm parts for years now, which coincides with how long Intel has stopped launching new HEDT parts. Chances are Intel has shelved HEDT plans until it can get ahead of demand for server and other higher priority parts.
    The only reason that intel started with HEDT was to sell more than 4 core CPUs to people, as soon as that moved to mainstream there was no more reason for HEDT.
    Now,they have the X/extreme series.
    https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/processors/core/x-series.html
    Reply
  • nofanneeded
    TerryLaze said:
    The only reason that intel started with HEDT was to sell more than 4 core CPUs to people, as soon as that moved to mainstream there was no more reason for HEDT.

    Totally wrong .. HEDT can easily reach 24, 32, 64 cores and HEDT uses Quad or Six or Eight channels memory ..

    More over HEDT CPU has more PCIe lanes .. 44-64 lanes VS 16 lanes only .

    It is totaly another dimension for desktop PCs.
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    steelfox said:
    new day ,new intel socket.

    Building a platform around a CPU is, IMO, better than always trying to adopt a new CPU to an existing platform. You tend to get the best performance results that way.
    Reply
  • Conahl
    TerryLaze said:
    The only reason that intel started with HEDT was to sell more than 4 core CPUs to people

    and intel couldnt do that with the main stream platform ? come on. they COULD of, but they didnt. they stuck the mainstream at 4 cores, and created the HEDT segment so they could charge a premium for those extra cores, plain and simple.

    TerryLaze said:
    as soon as that moved to mainstream there was no more reason for HEDT
    more like as soon as AMD made 6+ cores mainstream( zen 1), intel HAD to do it as well. they had NO choice now.
    Reply
  • TerryLaze
    Conahl said:
    and intel couldnt do that with the main stream platform ? come on. they COULD of, but they didnt.
    Sure they could, they could have released a 6/12 broadwell and later an 8/16 skywell at the same price as the 4770k and if they did that then now we would talk about AMD in the past tense because it would have killed AMD off completely.
    The only thing that saved AMD was that the premium intel charged was high enough for people to choose AMD.

    Conahl said:
    more like as soon as AMD made 6+ cores mainstream( zen 1), intel HAD to do it as well. they had NO choice now.
    Intel had and still has all the choices, AMD has such a small capacity/volume of CPUs that intel can keep charging whatever they want, if someone needs a CPU they have to buy whatever is available.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    TerryLaze said:
    Intel had and still has all the choices, AMD has such a small capacity/volume of CPUs that intel can keep charging whatever they want, if someone needs a CPU they have to buy whatever is available.
    Well, Intel did cut MSRPs on some SKUs recently, so its ability to charge whatever it wants is showing cracks.
    Reply