The Intel Xeon E-2278GEL was a server/workstation processor with 8 cores, launched in June 2019, at an MSRP of $519. It is part of the Xeon E lineup, using the Coffee Lake architecture with Socket 1151. Thanks to Intel Hyper-Threading the core-count is effectively doubled, to 16 threads. Xeon E-2278GEL has 16 MB of L3 cache and operates at 2000 MHz by default, but can boost up to 3.9 GHz, depending on the workload. Intel is building the Xeon E-2278GEL on a 14 nm production process, the transistor count is unknown. The multiplier is locked on Xeon E-2278GEL, which limits its overclocking capabilities.
With a TDP of 35 W, the Xeon E-2278GEL consumes only little energy. Intel's processor supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel interface. The highest officially supported memory speed is 2666 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 system, Xeon E-2278GEL uses a PCI-Express Gen 3 connection. This processor features the UHD Graphics P630 integrated graphics solution.
Hardware virtualization is available on the Xeon E-2278GEL, which greatly improves virtual machine performance. Additionally, IOMMU virtualization (PCI passthrough) is supported, so that guest virtual machines may directly use host hardware. Programs using Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) will run on this processor, boosting performance for calculation-heavy applications. Besides AVX, Intel is including the newer AVX2 standard, too, but not AVX-512.