According to sources cited by Bit-tech, Intel plans to introduce a new high-end processor socket in the third quarter of next year. If true, the new platform would effectively replace LGA1366 and will be incompatible with sockets that are currently available.
The Taiwanese tipsters go on to say that the new platform's chipset – presumably X68 – will tout four DDR3 DIMM channels, with support for only one DIMM per channel. This will reportedly maximize memory bandwidth, but will also make it harder to attain high densities since there will be two less RAM slots (four versus six on x58 boards). The new chipset is also rumored to support more PCI Express lanes.
There are no specifics on socket size or pin count but it's said that the first processor(s) will have a native eight-core, 16-thread design based on the forthcoming Sandy Bridge architecture.