The Intel Xeon W3690 was a server/workstation processor with 6 cores, launched in February 2011. It is part of the Xeon lineup, using the Gulftown architecture with Socket 1366. Thanks to Intel Hyper-Threading the core-count is effectively doubled, to 12 threads. Xeon W3690 has 12 MB of L3 cache and operates at 3.466 GHz by default, but can boost up to 3.733 GHz, depending on the workload. Intel is building the Xeon W3690 on a 32 nm production process using 1,170 million transistors. You may freely adjust the unlocked multiplier on Xeon W3690, which simplifies overclocking greatly, as you can easily dial in any overclocking frequency.
With a TDP of 130 W, the Xeon W3690 consumes a lot of power, so good cooling is definitely needed. Intel's processor supports DDR3 memory with a triple-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 W3690 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 W3690, which greatly improves virtual machine performance.