Intel Rolls Out Cascade Lake Xeon W Processors

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.

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