You may have wondered why there are Intel CPU motherboards and AMD CPU motherboards if they are made by the same manufacturers in the same factories and with the same quality and performance standards. The answer is quite simple and short at first sight, but it goes a bit deeper if we take into account the architectural point of view. Why can’t processors from both companies be installed in the same company? base plate?
Well that’s a great question, and it’s not that there’s no answer, it’s that there are contracts and provisions that don’t allow for that fact, that’s why the issue of CPU swapping is something that could be tested off the table and that, oddly enough, will never happen.
One motherboard, two different options, why will it never happen?
Being able to install an AMD CPU on an Intel motherboard or an Intel CPU on an AMD motherboard is not something that will happen, it has never happened in history and it won’t happen, you may be one sure. The main reason is that legally it is not allowed. Intel and AMD cover their backs with clauses so that no manufacturer hits ASRock for launching a card with two different sockets in an attempt to conquer the market.
But it is also very complicated to manufacture. This involves bending the internal electrical connections to two systems that manage tensions in a completely opposite way and in addition, the management of the RAM memory is also different despite the fact that they can use the same slots. If we talk about the physical section, logically, no socket from AMD or Intel is alike. This requires two of them to be installed, since neither CPU has the shape or pinout of the other, not to mention the LGA vs PGA issue.
Architecture and the lithographic knot, the last nail in the coffin
We cannot forget that the shape of the processors and therefore of the socket that houses them is given by the requirements of the architecture and of the lithographic nodes. If we start from a monodie architecture with a large number of cores in its maximum configuration, the pcbthe substrate or interposer that houses them will usually be larger in size than over generations and despite the fact that node comes with density, it usually makes processors bigger.
Also, if, as is currently the case, Intel continues with monodie and AMD continues with MCM, the internal layout of components, chiplets and resistors will be totally different, different pinouts and so in the end they are two concepts which look like an orange to a pear: they are fruits, but they have nothing else to do.
Therefore, given Intel’s current enclave of monolithic CPUs and heterogeneous architecture, with a large rectangular design and higher pinout than AMD, we will never be able to fit a Blue Team CPU on an AM4 motherboard. They don’t even have the same type of pins! So it’s better not to even try, because it’s like trying to fit a square into a triangle.
