Differences in the construction of the LGA1151 socket

When buying motherboards based on the Z270 chipset, many people hoped that they would be able to mount the next generation of processors. Intel quickly put an end to these dreams. It turns out that no software update or board manufacturers can backward compatibility for Coffee Lake processors.

See the construction of the LGA1151 stand for Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake.

If you look closely you will notice some pin differences. The number of VSS pins increases to 391 from 377. VSS pins change their number by 18 – from 128 pieces to 146. Also the RSVD pins change their number – this time they reduce it from 46 to 25. As you can see, these are not only changes in power supply but in the very functioning of the pins. It would have to change for the previous boards as well and this is not feasible, hence the lack of backward compatibility. It does not change the fact that Intel should name the new stand differently and not mislead people.

Source: https://www.eteknix.com/