In 1971, Intel released the first commercial processor of Intel 4004 - a chip with sixteen contact legs. Now 2022, and the relevant Alder Lake desktop processors are connected after 1700 contact sites (LGA 1700 socket). But in less than a couple of years, we are waiting for another “desired” upgrade - the LGA 2551 socket was lit up in leaks. Why will Intel make a universal connector for several years?

Progress does not doze and processors become smarter and more powerful. Intel once every 2-3 years changes the connector for connecting the processor to the computer motherboard, changing the number of contacts from the processor. When buying a modern and relevant Intel processor, you often have to change the computer's motherboard.

For 12 generations of processors, Intel has changed at least 6 sockets. Let's go through the main ones:

As can be seen from the presented data, from 2009 to November 2021, the Intel processor was enough for a little more than a thousand contacts. And for sure, the change of sockets of LGA 1156 → LGA 1155 → LGA 1150 → LGA 1151 → LGA 1200 was more due to marketing and to a lesser extent - of different architecture of processors. At the end of 2021, everything changed - the new Alder Lake first added additional energy -efficient nuclei, so the processor connector grew to 1700 contacts (LGA 1700).

There were rumors that LGA 1700 would be enough for as many as 3 generations - Alder Lake (2021), as well as the future Raptor Lake (2022) and Meteor Lake (2023). But judging by the information of the Videocardz website, in 2023 we are waiting for a new socket - LGA 2551:

Intel is not enough contacts again, so they decided to add another 851 contact.

A reasonable question arises: is it really impossible to provide in advance several hundred contacts for subsequent generations of processors and release, say LGA 3000 for 4-5 generations?

However, everything is a little more difficult. Intel needs to sell your chipsets.

I sincerely do not think that ENTL is developing every generation of processors from scratch. Therefore, the "latest architecture" from Intel is just a well -reflective and modified old one. Well, you can’t come up with a new architecture from scratch in a year (the frequency of the release of a new generation of Intel processors), conduct all the necessary laboratory and field tests, establish a release, conduct a presentation and start selling new processors.

But there is a more urgent task - to earn more. Intel production was stomped for a long time on the process of 14 nanometers, while Taiwan and Yu. Korea offered much more transistors per 1 mm².

In 2021, Intel counted the number of transistors and finally switched to 10 Nm (Intel 7).

However, the transition to a more modern technical process means that the old production lines are not loaded and do not make a profit. But Intel Khitza knows a lot about making money - on the old production lines, the company produces chipsets.

With almost every new generation of Intel processors, 2-3 new chipsets are released. Intel sells their chipset to manufacturers of maternal boards, and they produce motherboards for any wallet - from "expensive" to "is very expensive."

Undoubtedly, the new chipset brings new functions, for example, support for USB4, PCIe 4.0 for very fast SSD drives, etc. But then the question arises: do the ordinary user need these fishets?

And we must pay tribute to the competitor in the person of AMD - the company released the AM4 socket in 2017, and in 2022 it will be relevant for several months. During this time, AMD introduced several chipsets (the latter was released in 2020). Now on sale there are enough maternity boards on the AM4 socket and with different chipsets - from budget solutions to ultra -swirling for overclocking lovers. And since there are enough solutions on the market, the market is saturated and prices for maternal boards are reduced. Is it Intel - every 2 years you need to buy a new expensive motherboard ... or is it not necessary? 😊

Computer manufacturers have already come up with a lot of high -speed - PCIE 4.0/5.0, USB4, DDR5 ... But not everything needs to an ordinary user. Not everyone likes the fact that Intel every 2 years changes the processor connector, forcing the user to change the motherboard.

When assembling a computer, some people reason like this:

A person decides to buy Intel Core i5 with the hope of changing it with Core i7/i9, and after 1-2 years Intel spits him in the back with a new generation with a new processor connector. And a person has another question:

Those who love Intel and want to be in trend are jumping from generation to generation, selling their already “irrelevant” processors and motherboards, only to get new fichens. Others think "I'll wait for another year and take." And others, having weighed everything, once buy what they need, and calmly use a computer for 3-5 years.

The AMD lovers camp is a little easier - the connectors for their processors change less often, so changing the processor for relevant is cheaper and easier.

P.S. I suggest a little walk around America and look at Intel lakes: