The Intel Xeon W-11955M is a server/workstation processor with 8 cores, launched in May 2021, at an MSRP of $623. It is part of the Xeon lineup, using the Tiger Lake-H architecture with BGA 1499. Thanks to Intel Hyper-Threading the core-count is effectively doubled, to 16 threads. Xeon W-11955M has 24 MB of L3 cache and operates at 2.1 GHz by default, but can boost up to 5 GHz, depending on the workload. Intel is making the Xeon W-11955M on a 10 nm production node, the transistor count is unknown. The multiplier is locked on Xeon W-11955M, which limits its overclocking potential.
With a TDP of 35 W, the Xeon W-11955M consumes only little energy. Intel's processor supports DDR4 memory with a dual-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. 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 W-11955M uses a PCI-Express Gen 4 connection. This processor features the UHD Graphics 750 integrated graphics solution.
Hardware virtualization is available on the Xeon W-11955M, 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. Besides AVX, Intel has added support for the newer AVX2 and AVX-512 instructions, too.