jmke

MSI showed us how it is currently testing early versions of Intel’s next generation Nehalem architecture, which is based on the Bloomsfield CPU platform and Tylersberg chipset – the latter will be branded under the X58 nomenclature.

First, the CPU and its new socket: while the roadmaps say the high-end Nehalem to be launched in Q4 will have up to eight cores, the one MSI had in its office was just a quad-core but with eight threads.

The socket is still LGA, but instead of the 775 used on current boards, this one now features 1366 pins and is slightly rectangular – not Pentium Pro rectangular, but simply a stretched out square.

The back of the socket now has a metal backplate to brace itself and I’m afraid you’ll be buying a new heatsink too because the socket fittings have changed since LGA775. In fact, the whole area that needs to be exclusively for “Intel CPU use” is now apparently over twice the volume of that compared to LGA775 giving motherboard manufacturers even less space to shoehorn in additional components.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/05...up-in-taipei/1

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Kougar

Very very interesting stuff

If anything, big blue box would indicate CPU coolers can now get significantly bigger, both in baseplate and in total size/volume thanks to the additional room and the backplated reinforced socket.