Intel's next-generation Diamond Rapids "Xeon" CPUs are going to feature support on a massive LGA 9324 socket which almost nears 10K contacts.
Forget LGA 7529, Intel's LGA 9324 To Be The Biggest Socket Ever Made With Support For Diamond Rapids CPUs
The Intel LGA 7529 socket featured on the Birch Stream platform will be a massive design, featuring a total of 7529 gold contact pads which will support up to 128 core Xeon 6900P "Granite Rapids", & up to 288 core Xeon 6900E "Sierra Forest" CPUs. This socket will debut this quarter with the launch of Granite Rapids-AP chips but Intel is already working towards its next-gen socket which will take things to the next level.
Spotted by @harukaze5719, the Intel LGA 9324 socket is going to be gargantuan, featuring almost 10,000 gold contact pads. This socket was listed on Intel's Designintools webpage. The massive socket will be supporting Intel's next-gen Diamond Rapids CPUs as mentioned on the webpage and it looks like the details refer to the AP series which will be the follow-up to Granite Rapids-AP "Xeon 6900P".
The LGA 9324 CPU socket is also part of the Oak Stream platform which will be the follow-up to the Birch Stream platforms which are divided into two segments, the LGA 4710 socket & the LGA 7529 socket. The LGA 4710 socket features the Beechnut City reference evaluation platform while the LGA 7529 socket features the Avenue City reference evaluation platform.
The RVP for Oak Stream platforms aren't confirmed yet but we can expect them to be massive in terms of size. The larger socket will also feature a bigger size and most probably a 16-channel DRAM solution to enable a high-density memory platform.
Previous reports stated that Intel may end up using the LGA 7529/4710 sockets for Diamond Rapids CPUs but it looks like the company isn't going that route. The CPUs are expected to further boost up the core counts and will launch sometime around 2025-2026 with EPYC "Venice" being its direct competitor which also comes on a brand new SP7 socket and features up to 16-channel memory support.
With Intel once again being seen in a competitive position against AMD's Zen 5 offerings with its Granite Rapids and Sierra Forest lineup, it will be interesting how things stack up in the coming years in the data center and HPC segment. NVIDIA is also expected to introduce its Vera CPU lineup by 2026, further putting pressure on the x86 rivals.
Intel Xeon CPU Families (Preliminary):
| Family Branding | Coral Rapids | Diamond Rapids | Clearwater Forest | Granite Rapids | Sierra Forest | Emerald Rapids | Sapphire Rapids | Ice Lake-SP | Cooper Lake-SP | Cascade Lake-SP/AP | Skylake-SP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Process Node | Intel 14A? | Intel 18A-P | Intel 18A | Intel 3 | Intel 3 | Intel 7 | Intel 7 | 10nm+ | 14nm++ | 14nm++ | 14nm+ |
| Platform Name | TBD | Intel Oak Stream | Intel Birch Stream | Intel Birch Stream | Intel Mountain Stream Intel Birch Stream | Intel Eagle Stream | Intel Eagle Stream | Intel Whitley | Intel Cedar Island | Intel Purley | Intel Purley |
| Core Architecture | TBD | Panther Cove-X | Darkmont | Redwood Cove | Sierra Glen | Raptor Cove | Golden Cove | Sunny Cove | Cascade Lake | Cascade Lake | Skylake |
| MCP (Multi-Chip Package) SKUs | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Socket | TBD | LGA XXXX / 9324 | LGA 4710 / 7529 | LGA 4710 / 7529 | LGA 4710 / 7529 | LGA 4677 | LGA 4677 | LGA 4189 | LGA 4189 | LGA 3647 | LGA 3647 |
| Max Core Count | TBD | Up To 192 P-Cores | Up To 288 | Up To 128 | Up To 288 | Up To 64? | Up To 56 | Up To 40 | Up To 28 | Up To 28 | Up To 28 |
| Max Thread Count | TBD | Up To 192 | Up To 288 | Up To 256 | Up To 288 | Up To 128 | Up To 112 | Up To 80 | Up To 56 | Up To 56 | Up To 56 |
| Max L3 Cache | TBD | TBD | TBD | 480 MB L3 | 108 MB L3 | 320 MB L3 | 105 MB L3 | 60 MB L3 | 38.5 MB L3 | 38.5 MB L3 | 38.5 MB L3 |
| Memory Support | TBD | Up To 16-Channel DDR5-9000+ | Up To 12-Channel DDR5-8000 | Up To 12-Channel DDR5-6400 MCR-8800 | Up To 12-Channel DDR5-6400 | Up To 8-Channel DDR5-5600 | Up To 8-Channel DDR5-4800 | Up To 8-Channel DDR4-3200 | Up To 6-Channel DDR4-3200 | DDR4-2933 6-Channel | DDR4-2666 6-Channel |
| PCIe Gen Support | PCIe 6.0 | PCIe 6.0 | PCIe 5.0 (96 Lanes) | PCIe 5.0 (136 Lanes) | PCIe 5.0 (88Lanes) | PCIe 5.0 (80 Lanes) | PCIe 5.0 (80 lanes) | PCIe 4.0 (64 Lanes) | PCIe 3.0 (48 Lanes) | PCIe 3.0 (48 Lanes) | PCIe 3.0 (48 Lanes) |
| TDP Range (PL1) | TBD | TBD | Up To 500W | Up To 500W | Up To 350W | Up To 350W | Up To 350W | 105-270W | 150W-250W | 165W-205W | 140W-205W |
| 3D Xpoint Optane DIMM | TBD | TBD | N/A | Donahue Pass | N/A | Crow Pass | Crow Pass | Barlow Pass | Barlow Pass | Apache Pass | N/A |
| Competition | TBD | AMD EPYC Venice | AMD EPYC Turin | AMD EPYC Turin | AMD EPYC Bergamo | AMD EPYC Genoa ~5nm | AMD EPYC Genoa ~5nm | AMD EPYC Milan 7nm+ | AMD EPYC Rome 7nm | AMD EPYC Rome 7nm | AMD EPYC Naples 14nm |
| Launch | 2028-2029 | 2027 | 2026 | 2024 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2018 | 2017 |
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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