The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X is a desktop processor with 24 cores, launched in November 2019, at an MSRP of $1399. It is part of the Ryzen Threadripper lineup, using the Zen 2 (Castle Peak) architecture with Socket TRX4. Thanks to AMD Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) the core-count is effectively doubled, to 48 threads. Ryzen Threadripper 3960X has 128 MB of L3 cache and operates at 3.8 GHz by default, but can boost up to 4.5 GHz, depending on the workload. AMD is making the Ryzen Threadripper 3960X on a 7 nm production node using 15,200 million transistors. The silicon die of the chip is not fabricated at AMD, but at the foundry of TSMC. You may freely adjust the unlocked multiplier on Ryzen Threadripper 3960X, which simplifies overclocking greatly, as you can easily dial in any overclocking frequency.
With a TDP of 280 W, the Ryzen Threadripper 3960X is extremely power hungry, which means you need top-notch cooling. AMD's processor supports DDR4 memory with a quad-channel interface. The highest officially supported memory speed is 3200 MT/s, but with overclocking (and the right memory modules) you can go even higher. For communication with other components in the computer, Ryzen Threadripper 3960X uses a PCI-Express Gen 4 connection. This processor does not have integrated graphics, you will need a separate graphics card.
Hardware virtualization is available on the Ryzen Threadripper 3960X, which greatly improves virtual machine performance. Programs using Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) can run on this processor, boosting performance for calculation-heavy applications. Besides AVX, AMD is including the newer AVX2 standard, too, but not AVX-512.