Intel W680 chipset block diagram leaks
Some time ago, some netizens found that several European retailers have listed Supermicro’s upcoming W680 motherboards, all of which are ATX specifications, equipped with four memory slots that support ECC, and the price is between 417 and 469 euros. Paired with the Intel W680 chipset is a Xeon W-14xx series CPU from Alder Lake-S, using the LGA 1700 socket, compared to consumer-grade desktop platform products, the difference lies in the use of some key commercial-grade and workstation-grade technologies.
Recently, Twitter user @momomo_us has provided the official block diagram of the Intel W680 chipset, which looks very similar to the Z690 chipset in terms of specifications. The platform, which is positioned as a mainstream workstation, should also incorporate technologies such as Intel Deep Learning Boost(VNNI) and Gaussian Network Accelerator to improve efficiency for certain workloads.
The block diagram shows that the Xeon W-14xx series CPU supports DDR5-4800 and DDR4-3200 memory with ECC, and the directly connected CPU includes 16 PCIe 5.0 lanes and 4 PCIe 4.0 lanes, support eDP 1.4B, DP 1.4a, and HDMI 2.0b output, support up to four-screen display. The CPU is connected to the PCH via x8 DMI 4.0, which can provide more PCIe lanes. In addition, the W680 chipset has an independent Thunderbolt 4 Maple Ridge (USB 4), which supports Wi-Fi 6E and a 2.5Gbps network connection.
Xeon W-14xx series CPUs are currently known to have two configurations, including 8 P-Cores + 8 E-Cores and 6 P-Cores. In TDP configuration, there are 125W, 65W, 35W with “K” suffix. The Xeon W-14xx series of CPUs were originally scheduled to launch in the third quarter of 2021, but apparently changed the schedule later, and Intel is expected to release it in the next few months.
