AMD Opteron 140 EE socket: Socket 940

What the Opteron 140 EE is

The AMD Opteron 140 EE is a 1.4 GHz energy-efficient single-core server processor from February 2004. It runs one K8 core at 1.4 GHz with no turbo, so 1 core gives 1 thread. Cache is 1 MB of L2 on a 130 nm process. Power is rated at 30 W in a Socket 940 package with part number OSB140CSP5AT in the CG stepping.

EE marks an energy-efficient bin at 1.15 V, far below the 1.50 V of the standard 140 at the same 1.4 GHz and 1 MB rating. AMD sold the EE bin at 733 dollars for dense racks where power and heat cap the design, against 163 dollars for the standard 140 in May 2004. The chip supports MMX, SSE, SSE2, Enhanced 3DNow, NX bit and AMD64 with registered PC3200 DDR support. An 800 MHz HyperTransport link ties the part to the server chipset.

Low power changes the chassis math. A rack of 140 EE parts at 30 W each fits more nodes per kilowatt than standard 82 W parts, with smaller heatsinks and lower fan speeds. That density is why EE bins carried a price premium despite identical clocks and cache, since power savings paid back in cooling and electricity.

Socket and motherboard compatibility

The 140 EE fits Socket 940 single-processor dense servers with registered DDR memory and a BIOS that lists EE SledgeHammer parts. It needs a board qualified for 30 W EE operation, not just any Socket 940 board with standard power tables. The Socket vs chipset: what decides whether a CPU works guide covers pairing rules.

Dense single-socket chassis with directed airflow are the natural match. Boards that list EE parts adjust voltage to 1.15 V and fan curves for low power operation. Standard power 140 boards may seat the chip yet run fans too fast or misreport power without EE BIOS support. Dual-processor boards need 200 series EE parts instead.

Memory, PCIe and cooling

Memory is registered DDR with ECC through the on-chip controller, reaching PC3200 on CG EE parts. Only registered modules boot, with ECC correcting single-bit errors for server use.

HyperTransport at 800 MHz links the CPU to the chipset, while PCIe or PCI-X slots hang off the chipset for expansion. No PCIe lanes originate on the die. Cooling uses vendor qualified low power server heatsinks for a 30 W envelope, often smaller and quieter than 82 W parts. Directed rack airflow still matters, since dense nodes share limited air. A move to DDR2 needs Socket F.

Upgrade paths

On Socket 940 the EE path stays inside low power bins, since standard power 142 and 144 parts need larger cooling. Venus 100 series EE successors on 90 nm offer SSE3 with similar power where listed. Beyond Socket 940 a move to Socket F needs DDR2 boards with HE and EE Santa Rosa parts. The 140 EE lifts with the lever, so qualified swaps need no solder work.