Your motherboard uses a CPU socket to house the computer's CPU, which performs the heavy number crunching that makes your computer work seamlessly. Many advances occurred in processing that required motherboard manufacturers to constantly change the CPU sockets. To catch up with the changes, some modifications were also made to the socket that completely changes the way it looks and works. As of 2010, most manufacturers produce CPU sockets with a land grid array (LGA) that helps cool down the processor.
Simple Slots
The first types of interchangeable non-embedded CPUs manufactured used a simple slot much like the expansion slots within your motherboard. Preferred for their ease of use, CPU slots dominated the market by the 1990s and went on to herald the development of processing units such as the Pentium III. Slots like these, however, wear out after a certain amount of upgrades because of the friction against the contacts.
ZIF Sockets
Intel decided to abandon the "slot" idea during the development of the Pentium 4 chip and decided to integrate a new method of CPU housing for its newer lines of processors. AMD also adopted this idea rather quickly. Implementing ZIF sockets changed the world of microprocessors, making upgrades as simple as switching the chip and using a lever. A zero insertion force (ZIF) socket does not place any friction against any contacts. When the socket lever gets lifted, the contacts release anything they hold, "lifting" themselves off the CPU pins instead of grinding against them.
LGA Sockets
While the "lifting" strategy for processors became quite a breakthrough over grinding slots, CPU manufacturers started looking into some "colder" techniques for processor housing, especially since CPUs began to produce very abnormal amounts of heat due to the amount of transistors within them. The land grid array (LGA) slot, which encouraged more even heat distribution, came into play. While still made of plastic, the contacts sprang up and neatly bent downwards as a processor's weight started to press down on them. You still have to lift a lever, but the lever does nothing more than lift off a metal cover which is meant to push down on the processor once it's mounted.
Tags: against contacts, down processor, friction against, friction against contacts, grid array