Intel is playing a dangerous two socket game in the desktop market. The high-end one is LGA 1366 and it will be called Socket B. This is the first time we've heard this term, but we are sure we will get used to it. The socket looks very similar to Socket 775, as the pins are on the socket,; but, of course, the chip has more pin contacts and it looks significantly bigger.

Bloomfield, or Core i7, is a larger chip due to its integrated memory controller and the return of hyper threading, both of which take up a fair amount of die space. As Intel doesn’t want to stick with one socket it plans to introduce the LGA 1160 socket which will be known as socket H. 

Socket H will support the upcoming mainstream dual and quad-core Nehalems, including the quad-core Lynnefield, which is scheduled for a Q3 2009 introduction; and Havendale, scheduled for Q1 2010 availability. Two sockets means that LGA 1160, socket H boards will be dramatically cheaper than the ultra overpriced socket B LGA 1366, but we are sure that Intel could have done it all with a single socket.

In 2009, there will be at least four different desktop sockets, LGA 1366 for the high-end Core i7, LGA 775 for Core 2 Quad/Duo, Celeron and Pentium dual-core, Socket 437 for Atom and the soon-to-come socket H, LGA 1160, which is set to replace LGA 775 at a later stage.