

In tandem with the Apple Mac Pro announcement, Intel has launched their second-generation Xeon W processors.

Cascade Lake 3000-Series Xeon W

Intel is launching nine new SKUs – ranging from eight cores to twenty-eight cores. Unlike the original W-2100 series Xeon W processors which used the FCLGA-2066 packaging, those new models make use of the FCLGA-3647 package. That’s the same packaging used for the Skylake SP and Cascade Lake SP processors as well as the lone Xeon W-3175X chip.

In total, nine new Cascade Lake workstation processors were launched. All processors have the same features including AVX-512 support with 2 FMA units as well as support for up to 1 TiB of hexa-channel DDR4-2933 memory. There are two additional “M”-suffixed SKUs which have 2 TiB extended memory support. A new feature that Intel added to the 3200-series is Turbo Boost Max 3.0. Interestingly, none support Optane DC Persistent Memory which is the principal feature of Cascade Lake.

The new 3200-Series Xeon W processors are shown below.

Cascade Lake-based Xeon W Processors Model Price Cores Threads TDP Base TBT 2.0 TBMT 3.0 W-3223 $ 749.00 8 16 160 W 3.5 GHz 4 GHz 4.2 GHz W-3225 $ 1,199.00 8 16 160 W 3.7 GHz 4.3 GHz 4.4 GHz W-3235 $ 1,398.00 12 24 180 W 3.3 GHz 4.4 GHz 4.5 GHz W-3245 $ 1,999.00 16 32 205 W 3.2 GHz 4.4 GHz 4.6 GHz W-3265 $ 3,349.00 24 48 205 W 2.7 GHz 4.4 GHz 4.6 GHz W-3275 $ 4,449.00 28 56 205 W 2.5 GHz 4.4 GHz 4.6 GHz 2 TiB Extended Memory Models W-3245M $ 5,002.00 16 32 205 W 3.2 GHz 4.4 GHz 4.6 GHz W-3265M $ 6,353.00 24 48 205 W 2.7 GHz 4.4 GHz 4.6 GHz W-3275M $ 7,453.00 28 56 205 W 2.5 GHz 4.4 GHz 4.6 GHz

x64 PCIe Lanes

One of the bigger additions to the new 3200-Series is the exposure of x16 additional PCIe lanes to the platform. Both the Skylake and Cascade Lake dies had the x16 lane root complex available on-die. Until now Intel reserved those lanes for the on-package Omni-Path Host Fabric Interface (HFI) integration. With those parts, Intel has decided to expose those lanes to the platform bringing the total PCIe count to 4×16 for a total of 64 lanes. It’s worth pointing out that with x64 PCIe lanes, those processors are Intel’s highest I/O parts. The move is designed to improve the competitiveness of those parts against AMD Threadripper which have 60 PCIe lanes available.

Update: This article was updated following a confirmation from Intel regarding the additional PCIe lanes.