The Intel Xeon W-1290 is a server/workstation processor with 10 cores, launched in May 2020, at an MSRP of $498. It is part of the Xeon lineup, using the Comet Lake architecture with Socket 1200. Thanks to Intel Hyper-Threading the core-count is effectively doubled, to 20 threads. Xeon W-1290 has 20 MB of L3 cache and operates at 3.2 GHz by default, but can boost up to 5.2 GHz, depending on the workload. Intel is building the Xeon W-1290 on a 14 nm production process, the transistor count is unknown. The multiplier is locked on Xeon W-1290, which limits its overclocking capabilities.
With a TDP of 80 W, the Xeon W-1290 consumes a good deal of power, so decent cooling is needed. Intel's processor supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel interface. The highest officially supported memory speed is 2933 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 machine, Xeon W-1290 uses a PCI-Express Gen 3 connection. This processor features the Intel UHD Graphics P630 integrated graphics solution.
Hardware virtualization is available on the Xeon W-1290, 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.