Square, but the pins are in a "T" shaped arrangement, IIRC.
They're not really "pins", they're fingers. IIRC the "Socket T" nickname
originally came from the fact that the hole in the top of the CPU retainer
is sorta "T"-shaped.
Do you know something that every else doesn't?
Yes and no. Intel's transition to this design is nothing more than a logical
side effect of increasing pin counts and decreasing CPU package sizes. More
connections in a smaller package means higher pin density, so you have to
cram the pin, insulation and (if you keep the ZIF socket) all the contacts
and sliding stuff into ever decreasing spaces. Intel obviously decided the
time was right to re-evaluate things, and design something that'll work for
the current and a number of future generations of CPU's.
So yes, as AMD's CPU's are also transitioning to smaller packages and larger
pin counts, it's only a matter of time before they adopt a similar design.
Probably sooner rather than later, seeing as Intel have now done all the
R&D, and taken the initial lumps for daring to reinvent the wheel.
That does sound like a good idea, I was put off LGA775 when I
heard that you could only take the CPU in and out of the socket 20
or so times. I don't know how accurate that is.
Just another bullshit scare story that stupid people like to spread. This
all comes from Intel specifying that the design should be capable of at
least 20 successful insert/extract procedures. It doesn't mean that your
socket will self-destruct the 21st time you pull the chip out.
The thing the stupid people forget to mention is that Socket 478, Socket
370, Socket 7, basically every ZIF socket Intel ever designed was also only
ever specified for 20 operations, so in this respect it's no worse any any
of its predecessors. Provided you're not ham-fisted or simply unlucky,
there's no reason to expect you'd have problems with it.
--
Richard Hopkins
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
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