Currently, for modern processors, it is necessary to use motherboards with LGA 1700 sockets on the Intel side and AM5 sockets on the AMD side. For a long time, processor manufacturers have been using their own sockets as a standard and therefore do not offer any compatibility with competing companies. However, when we go back a little in the past, we remember that there were some exceptions, when a single socket supported both manufacturers.Socket 5 and Socket 7
By 1995, AMD had resolved all legal disputes with Intel with an agreement that gave it a common share in the x86 chip design, the basic architecture of the chips used in personal computers to date. AMD later developed its own method of implementing x86 designs and released Athlons in 1999, as per the agreement. The rest of the story is pretty familiar.
On the other hand, different events took place in the 90s. Released in 1994, Socket 5 was designed for Intel’s second generation P5 Pentium processors, while also offering support for AMD’s 5K chips and even the 6×86 Cyrix and IDT’s WinChip series. Along with multi-processor support, Socket 5 was a breakthrough in performance in 1994/1995. Compared to the previous Socket 3, it came with serious features such as very few jumper changes, easy configuration, L1/L2 cache and memory settings as standard in the BIOS, PS / 2 support on most cards, PCI and ISA.
Later, in the summer of 1995, Socket 7, the successor to Socket 5, appeared and offered support for P5 Pentium processors as well as compatible processors produced by AMD, Cyrix/IBM and IDT. Socket 7 also provided backward compatibility with the help of an adapter (or manually changing the pins). The key difference between the two was that Socket 7 had an extra pin for dual split rail voltage, as opposed to Socket 5’s single voltage.In 1998, Super Socket 7, an extension of Socket 7, was developed by AMD to allow the K6-2 and K6-III processors to run at a higher clock speed and use AGP, providing the company with a temporary solution. After losing the license for Intel sockets that moved to Slot 1, Super Socket 7 gave AMD time to develop its own motherboard infrastructure (Slot A). Slot A was used with AMD’s first Athlon processors.
Well, once upon a time, processors from different manufacturers could be used with the same motherboard. Although this situation did not last long, it must have been very enjoyable for those who lived through that period. On the other hand, the probability of such a thing happening today is quite low.
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