This is where the CTE, or coefficient of thermal expansion, comes into play. As the processor moves from room temperature to its operating temperature, individual materials expand at different rates, causing mechanical stress that manifests itself as bending of the Z axis. If only a single contact processor and socket could be created flat, smooth and clean enough, yet when heated it would expand equally, at least with the materials we have at our disposal in modern computing.
As far as possible, when designing a processor it is desirable that the electrical paths have good conductivity. Returning to the supposed processor and socket with a single flat contact, this would be a real problem because the slightest imperfection in either of the two surfaces, the mechanical expansion of the materials or the vibrations of the heatsink fan motor itself could create instability. So if you're lucky enough to be using one of those monsters, definitely don't bend any of those delicate mother board contacts.
As far as what all this means for you, the consumer, though. It doesn't really affect performance in the way that the architectural design or the clock speeds of the core accounts of the chips do. And the reason that Intel and AMD went their separate ways. It's just because they valued different aspects of these designs, since each one does have their pros and cons.
It's just important to be aware of the pitfalls whenever you're installing either of them so you don't mess up the bottom of your chip unless you want a very expensive coaster for your shot glass. Jacob Enderson 01 May Comments 1. You must be logged in to comment. Subscribe to weekly digest Get the latest posts delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to weekly digest. The other popular alternative is a ball grid array BGA , which is widely used today, primarily in mobile devices.
The reason we've not seen it much on desktop is because BGA designs actually see the chip soldered permanently to the socket. AMD had previously promised to continue support for the AM4 socket until , and has since stuck to it for its Zen 3-powered Ryzen chips on desktop.
While the future of AMD's Ryzen releases remains a little hazy, it's likely that the next major architectural release from the company, likely Zen 4, will arrive with the new AM5 socket.
Backwards compatibility between even AM4-compatible chips is anything but a sure thing, but the shift to AM5 will certainly rule out any future upgrades to Zen 4 for gamers with series motherboards.
With AMD's track record, though, AM5 will likely be around for a good while before it's replaced by something even shinier. AM4 has been around since Jacob earned his first byline writing for his own tech blog from his hometown in Wales in From there, he graduated to professionally breaking things at PCGamesN, where he would later win command of the kit cupboard as hardware editor.
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