The Intel Xeon EC5539 was a server/workstation processor with 4 cores, launched in February 2010, at an MSRP of $388. It is part of the Xeon lineup, using the Jasper Forest architecture with Socket 1366. Thanks to Intel Hyper-Threading the core-count is effectively doubled, to 8 threads. To further increase overall system performance, up to two Xeon EC5539 CPUs can work together in a multi-processor (SMP) configuration. Xeon EC5539 has 4 MB of L3 cache and operates at 2.266 GHz. Intel is making the Xeon EC5539 on a 45 nm production node, the transistor count is unknown. The multiplier is locked on Xeon EC5539, which limits its overclocking potential.
With a TDP of 65 W, the Xeon EC5539 consumes typical power levels for a modern PC. Intel's processor supports DDR3 memory with a triple-channel interface. The highest officially supported memory speed is 1333 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 EC5539 uses a PCI-Express Gen 2 connection. This processor lacks integrated graphics, you might need a graphics card.
Hardware virtualization is available on the Xeon EC5539, which greatly improves virtual machine performance. Additionally, IOMMU virtualization (PCI passthrough) is supported, so that guest virtual machines may directly use host hardware.