Intel server platform going for Socket LGA4677 with PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 memory
While AMD just recently implemented PCIe Gen 4.0 on the latest motherboards and graphics cards, we've already seen some PCIe Gen 5 announcements. As it seems, Intel is already working on some PCIe Gen5 designs, specifically for their data-center centric products.
The news with an accompanying photo was posted by a reporter from Japanese PC Watch, on Twitter, showcasing an a mockup socket. If you look at the photo and focus on the timeline, you'll spot LGA4677 which will likely reach the market by 2021 as the successor to Ice Lake and Cooper Lake.
That product series will support PCIE 5.0 and an eight-channel DDR5 controller, it's called the Sapphire Rapids platform. According to previous reports the new core architecture called Willow Cove would be used, passing Sunny Cove it would get even more L3 cache (per core) and enhanced security features albeit little is known at the moment. As you can see from the photo, the new socket itself was not caught on camera however there are some technical drawings available. The new LGA4677 socket is produced by TE Connectivity and has considerably more pins, my guestimated guess would be 4677 of them. And with 4677 pins that are going to be one massive socket.
BTW the LGA4189 mention would be the Ice Lake processor generation for the server market for 2020, which as it looks from this data, will be succeeded already in 2021.
Sources: Kazuki Kasahara (Twitter) , Computerbase, via SH SOTN (email).
Computex 2015: ASRock Intel Series 100 Motherboards - 06/02/2015 06:20 AM
Over at the ASRock booth they got a lot on display, more prominent however are the series 100 motherboards based on Intels new chipset. We snagged a few photos....
Intel series 520 240GB SSD review - 02/07/2012 09:15 AM
We review the Intel series 520 240GB SSD. They now have multiple SSDs on the market initially with their proprietary controller, then a Marvel controller, and today Intel releases the Series 520 SSDs ...
New Intel Server Board Holds 1 TB of RAM - 12/28/2011 01:47 PM
There will also be a quad-CPU enabled Xeon E5 Socket 2011 version, a quarter later from now as vrzone reports. How much memory can it take? How about a terabyte? Two QPI links on Socket 2011 CPUs do...
Intel series 320 SSD review - 04/27/2011 10:02 AM
We review the Intel series 320 SSD. Armed with cheaper NAND flash memory this drive competes at the middle segment tagged with a decent price. But will it be enough to compete with the competition ? A...
Intel Settles -- Pays $1.25 Billion to AMD - 11/13/2009 09:14 AM
Wow .. just wow.
Senior Member
Posts: 408
Joined: 2011-08-08
And yet Ice Lake SP with Socket 4189 (to be released in 2020) might get PCIe 4.0 with the Whitley platform.
https://wccftech.com/intel-xeon-sapphire-rapids-granite-rapids-cpus-lga-4677-compatible-ddr5-pcie-5/
Junior Member
Posts: 13
Joined: 2008-02-16
Although I don't see consumer hardware needing PCI-e 5.0 for quite some time, we're already nearing the maximum throughput for PCI-e 4.0 on the server Ethernet networking front. 400Gbps is currently in development (that's 50GBps) which utilizes most of the bandwidth available to a PCI-e 4.0 x16 slot. If data centers continue to fund switch makers as they have been for the past decade, I expect we'll see 800Gbps+ networking coming out shortly after PCI-e 5.0 hardware is released which would consume most of the available bandwidth in a PCI-e 5.0 x16 slot.
That reminds me, with 200Gbps Ethernet available on the market, it's sad the average consumer is still stuck with 1Gbps Ethernet.
Back on topic though, keep in mind this article is about server hardware. I wouldn't be surprised if consumers get PCI-e 5.0 after servers already have it.
Senior Member
Posts: 408
Joined: 2011-08-08
Etherner over twisted pair is limited to 25G/40G.
2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T Ethernet reach 100 m with Cat 5E/6 cables, 10GBASE-T requires Cat.6A to reach 100 m, and 25GBASE-T and 40GBASE-T require Cat.8 cabling and only work up to 30 m.
There are recent 'gamer' X570 motherboards which use 2.5GBASE-T or 10GBASE-T Ethernet controllers from Realtek and Marvell/Aquantia; I believe Intel prepares 2.5GBASE-T products as well. But there aren't many 2.5G/5G/10GBASE-T switches/routers, not to mention internet providers that offer >1 GBit/s.
Intel's adoption cadence has always been quite fast - if PCIe 5.0 comes to Server/HPC by 2021, it shall trickle down to workstation/desktop by 2022; AMD's Ryzen will probably have it too by then.
Senior Member
Posts: 397
Joined: 2006-11-29
Those multi-hundred dollar UFO-looking routers need to start making them with 10G ports.
Senior Member
Posts: 156
Joined: 2016-08-27
in 2021
in 2021
Who's this interesting?
in The end of 2021 to 20 cores will be !