Socket 7

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Socket 7
Specifications
Type ZIF
Chip form factors PPGA, CPGA
Contacts 321
Bus Protocol P5
FSB 66 - 83 MHz System Clock
Voltage range 2.5V - 3.5V
Processors 75-233 MHz Intel Pentium, AMD K5 through K6, Cyrix 6x86 (and MX) P120 - P233

This article is part of the CPU socket series


Socket 7 is a physical and electrical specification for an x86-style CPU socket on a personal computer motherboard. The socket supersedes the earlier Socket 5, and accepts Pentium microprocessors manufactured by Intel, as well as compatibles made by Cyrix, AMD and others.

Socket 7 was the only socket that accepted such a wide range of CPUs, (range of speeds and CPUs from different manufacturers).

Differences between Socket 5 and Socket 7 are that Socket 7 has an extra pin and is designed to provide dual split rail voltage, as opposed to Socket 5's single voltage. (However, not all motherboard manufacturers supported the dual voltage on their boards initially.) Socket 7 is backwards compatible; a Socket 5 CPU can be placed in a Socket 7 motherboard.

Supported processors include: 2.5V - 3.5V Pentium 75-200 MHz and Pentium MMX 166-233 MHz, AMD K5 through K6, Cyrix 6x86 (and MX) P120 - P233.

Socket 7 uses a SPGA socket, either a 296 pin LIF arranged at 37x37 (which is very rare), or the much more common 321 pin ZIF arranged at 19x19.

An extension, Super Socket 7, was designed to allow the AMD K6-2 and AMD K6-III chips to operate at a higher clock rate and use AGP.

[edit] References

This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL.