Socket AM4 is a PGA

microprocessor socket In computer hardware, a CPU socket or CPU slot contains one or more mechanical components providing mechanical and electrical connections between a microprocessor and a printed circuit board (PCB). This allows for placing and replacing the cent ...

used by AMD's

central processing units A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, an ...

(CPUs) built on the

Zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

(including

Zen+ Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text=:ja:禅, 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a East Asian Buddhism, school of Mahayana, Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Ch ...

Zen 2 Zen 2 is a computer processor microarchitecture by AMD. It is the successor of AMD's Zen and Zen+ microarchitectures, and is fabricated on the 7 nanometer MOSFET node from TSMC. The microarchitecture powers the third generation of Ryzen pro ...

and

Zen 3 Zen 3 is the codename for a CPU microarchitecture by AMD, released on November 5, 2020. It is the successor to Zen 2 and uses TSMC's 7 nm process for the chiplets and GlobalFoundries's 14 nm process for the I/O die on the server chips and 12 nm f ...

) and

Excavator Excavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, dipper (or stick), bucket and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house". The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. They are a natural progression fr ...

microarchitectures. ''AM4'' was launched in September 2016 and was designed to replace the sockets AM3+, FM2+ and FS1b as a single platform. It has 1331 pin slots and is the first from AMD to support DDR4 memory as well as achieve unified compatibility between

high-end In economics, a luxury good (or upmarket good) is a good for which demand increases more than what is proportional as income rises, so that expenditures on the good become a greater proportion of overall spending. Luxury goods are in contrast to ...

CPUs (previously using Socket AM3+) and AMD's lower-end

APUs Apus is a small constellation in the southern sky. It represents a bird-of-paradise, and its name means "without feet" in Greek because the bird-of-paradise was once wrongly believed to lack feet. First depicted on a celestial globe by Petrus ...

(on various other sockets). In 2017, AMD made a commitment to using the AM4 platform with socket 1331 until 2020.

Features

* Support for

(including

and

) based family of CPUs and

(

Ryzen Ryzen ( ) is a brand of multi-core x86-64 microprocessors designed and marketed by AMD for desktop, mobile, server, and embedded platforms based on the Zen microarchitecture. It consists of central processing units (CPUs) marketed for mainst ...

Athlon Athlon is the brand name applied to a series of x86-compatible microprocessors designed and manufactured by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). The original Athlon (now called Athlon Classic) was the first seventh-generation x86 processor and the fi ...

), as well as for some A-Series APUs and

Athlon X4 AMD Athlon X4 is a series of budget AMD microprocessors for personal computers. These processors are distinct from A-Series APUs of the same era due to the lack of iGPUs. "Richland" (2013, 32 nm) * Socket FM2 * CPU: Two or four Piledriver-cores ...

CPUs (Bristol Ridge based on the

microarchitecture) * Supports

PCIe 3.0 PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), officially abbreviated as PCIe or PCI-e, is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard, designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X and AGP bus standards. It is the common mot ...

and PCIe 4.0 * Supports up to 4 modules of

DDR4 Double Data Rate 4 Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DDR4 SDRAM) is a type of synchronous dynamic random-access memory with a high bandwidth ("double data rate") interface. Released to the market in 2014, it is a variant of dynamic rand ...

RAM in dual-channel configuration

Heatsink

The AM4 socket specifies the 4 holes for fastening the heatsink to the motherboard to be placed in the corners of a rectangle with a lateral length of 54×90 mm. Previous sockets have 48×96 mm. Some heat sinks for older sockets are not compatible. Some cooler manufacturers, however, are reported to be offering brackets allowing previously manufactured coolers to work with AM4, while other coolers will be redesigned. Alternatively, some motherboard makers are including both AM3 and AM4 cooler mounting holes, allowing previous generation coolers to be used. AM4 coolers that use a two-pronged bracket approach (such as the AMD Wraith Prism) to mount the cooler will work with AM4 and all the way back to Socket 754/939.

Chipsets

Socket AM4 is currently a base for 8

chipset In a computer system, a chipset is a set of electronic components in one or more integrated circuits known as a "Data Flow Management System" that manages the data flow between the processor, memory and peripherals. It is usually found on t ...

models. While the processors for this socket have been designed as systems in a package (SiP), with the traditional northbridge and southbridge on board the processor, the motherboard chipset will increase the number of

PCI Express PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), officially abbreviated as PCIe or PCI-e, is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard, designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X and AGP bus standards. It is the common m ...

lanes and other connectivity options. These connectivity options include:

NVMe NVM Express (NVMe) or Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface Specification (NVMHCIS) is an open, logical-device interface specification for accessing a computer's non-volatile storage media usually attached via PCI Express (PCIe) bus. The ...

SATA SATA (Serial AT Attachment) is a computer bus interface that connects host adapter, host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives. Serial ATA succeeded the earlier Parallel ATA (PATA) ...

, and USB 3.2 Gen 2. There also exists chipset-less variations of A320 and X370, called A300 and X300 respectively, that rely solely on the I/O die integrated into the CPU; these platforms are designed solely for small form factor (SFF) systems where there is a possibility that there is not enough space on the board to fit an actual chipset; these 'chipsets' are also solely available for OEM use only and are not available for purchase with SFF boards.

Compatibility

In 2020, AMD faced some criticism when it was announced on May 7 that its

-based Ryzen 5000 microprocessors would only be compatible with newer 500-series chipset AM4 motherboards. This was explained as motherboard BIOS's sizes not being large enough to support the full range of AM4 socket processors. This had upset some of the user base as, described by ''AnandTech'', they "...had assumed that this meant any AM4 platform based motherboard would be able to accept all processor made from 2016 to 2020, including the new Zen 3...". After the announcement some motherboard manufacturers announced they were planning to add in support for Zen 3 processors via BIOS updates. On 19 May 2020, however, AMD changed its position and stated that Zen 3 would be coming to selected older X470 and B450 motherboards via a BIOS update. This would be achieved by disabling support for some older AM4 processors in the BIOS ROM in order to allocate space to support the newer processors. On 12 November 2021, according to ''TechPowerUp'', ASUS and Gigabyte were the few vendors that allowed Ryzen 5000 on A320 motherboard, and according to ''Tom's Hardware'', it was done by removing support for AMD's 7th Generation A-series and Athlon X4 series (Bristol Ridge) processors.

Weblinks

References