The Intel Xeon E3-1290 was a server/workstation processor with 4 cores, launched in May 2011. It is part of the Xeon E3 lineup, using the Sandy Bridge architecture with Socket 1155. Thanks to Intel Hyper-Threading the core-count is effectively doubled, to 8 threads. Xeon E3-1290 has 8 MB of L3 cache and operates at 3.6 GHz by default, but can boost up to 4 GHz, depending on the workload. Intel is making the Xeon E3-1290 on a 32 nm production node using 1,160 million transistors. The multiplier is locked on Xeon E3-1290, which limits its overclocking potential.
With a TDP of 95 W, the Xeon E3-1290 consumes a good deal of power, so decent cooling is needed. Intel's processor supports DDR3 memory with a dual-channel interface. 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 E3-1290 uses a PCI-Express Gen 3 connection. This processor lacks integrated graphics, you might need a graphics card.
Hardware virtualization is available on the Xeon E3-1290, 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) can run on this processor, boosting performance for calculation-heavy applications.