Slot 1.7 times larger, 61% more pins, Intel Granite Rapids Xeon 9000 CPU slot image exposure

Thanks to CTOnews.com netizen OC_Formula for the clue delivery! CTOnews.com February 3 news, Yuuki Ans earlier this week, exposed the Intel Granite Rapids Xeon 9000 CPU slot picture. Three very detailed images show the opening and closing of slots, as well as the backplane.

Angstronomics's Twitterer SkyJuice measures and calculates the picture of the slot, giving us a more intuitive understanding of Intel's upcoming LGA 7529 slot.

SkyJuice estimates the size of the LGA 7529 slot to be 105x70.5mm. This is 1.7 times larger than the LGA 4677 socket used by the current generation of Sapphire Rapids server processors.

If you don't have a clearer sense of the size of the LGA 7529 slot, then CTOnews.com comes with some comparable size data:

Intel Alder Lake or Raptor Lake CPU size is 45 x 37.5mm

The size of a traditional credit card / bank card is 85 x 55 mm

A deck of playing cards is 88.9 x 63.5 mm.

The Socket SP5 size of AMD for the latest generation of Epyc Zen 4 Genoa CPU is 75.4x 72mm.

Intel Granite Rapids Xeon 9000 CPU slot size is 105x70.5mm

Apple iPhone 13 Mini measures 131.5 x 64.2mm (7.65mm thick)

The Intel NUC 12 Pro is approximately 117x112mm (the height of the "slim" model is 54mm).

So why is the Intel Granite Rapids Xeon 9000 CPU slot much larger than the current Xeon processor / socket?

The first reason is that Intel has greatly increased the number of stitches.

The Granite Rapids chip is expected to have up to 128 cores, twice the number of Sapphire Rapids and Emerald Rapids cores used on LGA 4677.

In addition, Intel plans to use the new LGA 7529 slot with Sierra Forest Xeons, which could be equipped with up to 334 cores.

Additional kernels and increased complexity / requirements in terms of PCIe, memory channels, and power transfer will use additional pins.