CPU, will there ever be a.....

[silent]

cpu or motherboard that won't hve pins to bend/damage/loose?

i'd love it if there could be one day.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The old ones with slots??

[spacein_vader]

The old ones with slots??

The old Pentium Pro/P2 era Slot 1 boards did: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slot_1

Of course they had their own issues...

[DanceswithUnix]

Only ones with soldered bumps.

Theoretically they could communicate with lasers I guess, but you have to get power in somehow at over 100A. Perhaps a couple of big car battery clamps on top of the package instead, but then how do you bolt on the heatsink?

[Waynehwc]

Nuc motherboards? Where cpu already installed with a thin cooler pretty much a laptop spec computer. E.g. asus pn50 which as amd 4000 series laptop processor in them could pair with a external graphics card like gigabyte upcoming 3080 arous external gpu box thing.

[stubbadub]

The old Pentium Pro/P2 era Slot 1 boards did:

Of course they had their own issues...

The amount of boards i used to have to replace due to broken retaining clips on them.

[Giraffe]

At one time - getting on 20 years ago? - AMD had ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) sockets: the CPU just dropped in with enough clearance not to risk the pins then a lever closed the socket. I don't know why that was abandoned.

[Xlucine]

At one time - getting on 20 years ago? - AMD had ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) sockets: the CPU just dropped in with enough clearance not to risk the pins then a lever closed the socket. I don't know why that was abandoned.

Current AMD CPUs drop in the socket with no force required

[[GSV]Trig]

At one time - getting on 20 years ago? - AMD had ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) sockets: the CPU just dropped in with enough clearance not to risk the pins then a lever closed the socket. I don't know why that was abandoned.

I didn't know it had been abandoned?!?!?!One..

[wazzickle]

Yeah it's called buying a laptop or pre-built PC.

[Pob255]

I thought AM4 is still a ZIF connector, yep it is indeed a pin grid array ZIF (μOPGA-ZIF) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socket_AM4 think about what a connector is, basically a plug and socket, two metal surfaces pressed up against each other to allow electrical conduction, with one side being sprung to keep a constant pressure on the joint.

A plug usually has fixed pins and the socket has sprung contact pads, to connect the plug you need enough force to overcome the sprung pressure, the more pins you have multiplies the force required, cpu's being high current devices have quite high levels of current going through the pins, requiring higher spring pressure to avoid arcing (that my understanding)
lots of delicate pins and high levels of force don't mix, so the ZIF concept was born, ie a mechanism to release the spring tension to reduce the force required to insert the plug and then reapply the tension.

in the case of AMD sockets since the first Super Socket 7 they work in the same way (AFAIK) the leaver on the side of the socket is a mechanical system that pries apart the sprung contact jaws in the socket, you then drop the pins in freely and close the leaver allowing the contact jaws in the socket to close on the pins.

The only simple way to get around a sprung system of contact is to solder the chip directly on, which is what's done on most laptops, tablets and such.
personally I much prefer a socketed cpu to a soldered on cpu.