The AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3955WX is a desktop processor with 16 cores, launched in July 2020, at an MSRP of $1149. It is part of the Ryzen Threadripper lineup, using the Zen 2 (Castle Peak) architecture with Socket WRX8. Thanks to AMD Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) the core-count is effectively doubled, to 32 threads. Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3955WX has 64 MB of L3 cache and operates at 3.9 GHz by default, but can boost up to 4.3 GHz, depending on the workload. AMD is making the Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3955WX on a 7 nm production node using 15,200 million transistors. The silicon die of the chip is not fabricated at AMD, but at the foundry of TSMC. The multiplier is locked on Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3955WX, which limits its overclocking potential.
With a TDP of 280 W, the Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3955WX is extremely power hungry, which means you need top-notch cooling. AMD's processor supports DDR4 memory with an eight-channel interface. The highest officially supported memory speed is 3200 MT/s, but with overclocking (and the right memory modules) you can go even higher. ECC memory is supported, too, which is an important capability for mission-critical systems, to avoid data corruption. For communication with other components in the computer, Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3955WX uses a PCI-Express Gen 4 connection. This processor does not have integrated graphics, you will need a separate graphics card.
Hardware virtualization is available on the Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3955WX, which greatly improves virtual machine performance. Programs using Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) can run on this processor, boosting performance for calculation-heavy applications. Besides AVX, AMD is including the newer AVX2 standard, too, but not AVX-512.