Intel’s Xeon Diamond Rapids processors will utilize the company’s brand new Oak Stream platform, which will adopt a brand new socket with over 9300 pins, based on a testing tool Intel is currently offering to its partners (spotted by @harukaze5719).
The new LGA9324 socket for Intel’s Xeon 7 “Diamond Rapids” processors will have – as the name suggests – 9,324 pins. That’s more than the 4,677 pins used by Intel’s Sapphire Rapids and Emerald Rapids CPUs, and also more than the 7,529 pins used by Intel’s Xeon 5 Granite Rapids and Sierra Forest processors.
Intel’s Birch Stream platform for Intel Xeon 6900 processors will have up to 288 E-cores or up to 128 P-cores and already has 12 DDR5 memory channels supporting regular DDR5-6400 or DDR5-8800 MCR memory and up to 96 PCIe 5.0 lanes. An LGA7529 socket can deliver up to 500W per Xeon 6900 CPU.
Given the increased pin count of the Oak Stream platform, it is reasonable to assume that Intel’s Xeon 7 Diamond Rapids and Clearwater Forest will offer even more memory channels and I/O lanes, as well as a higher power budget.
We wonder how big Intel’s Xeon 7 Diamond Rapids and Clearwater Forest processors will be, but it’s at least obvious that they’ll be considerably larger than existing CPUs. Since the upcoming processors will likely consume more power than Granite Rapids and Sierra Forest CPUs, it’s likely that the top SKUs will require exotic cooling solutions as standard.
Intel does not yet have samples of its Xeon 7 Diamond Rapids processors available to customers, but needs to ensure the new platform is ready when it ships new CPUs in 2025. So for now, Intel is offering its LGA9324-OKS-AP-BLU interposer for the Gen5 VR test tool. The device is designed to connect this test tool to a new processor socket to ensure PCIe Gen5 interoperability with the new platform. With this interposer, the test tool can measure the VCCIN rail, but cannot handle the maximum power requirements needed for certain tests – customers are advised to use a different interposer for higher power loads.
