Intel Document Confirms X399 Chipset For Coffee Lake And Cannon Lake HEDT Processors
A document on Intel's website [PDF] was recently discovered that draws attention to the company's Rapid Storage Technology. However, found within the document are references to two unannounced chipsets: the Z390 (which we have discussed at length here at HotHardware) and the X399. The Z390 will support both existing Coffee Lake processor and the incoming 10nm Cannon Lake family of processors. It will serve as the flagship for Intel's mainstream desktop Coffee Lake processors.
The more interesting revelation, however, pertains to the X399, which will support both Coffee Lake- and Cannon Lake-based HEDT processors. If you recall, last year's Core X-Series encompassed Kaby Lake-X and Skylake-X architectures and used the X299 chipset (LGA 2066). This dual-architecture arrangement appears to extend to the incoming crop of chips with what we’re presuming will be Cannon Lake-X and Coffee Lake-X processors. The current generation processors top out with the 18-core Core i9-7980XE Skylake-X, which is capable executing 36 threads.
With LGA 2066 only being out for roughly a year, we can't imagine that Intel would want to switch up sockets again for X399 (and enthusiasts would likely revolt anyway), which means that LGA 2066 should stick around. Computex is fast approaching, so perhaps we'll hear some official details from Intel in the coming weeks.
