News

Users not Impressed in Pricing Changes by Oracle

December 23, 2005

The users interviewed after Oracle Corp. revamped its multi-core processing pricing model said that they were not impressed by the new changes in the prices. The new model calls for separate pricing schemes for the chips of different vendors.

The new scheme will "bring greater parity" to pricing and claimed that it represents Oracle's hardware-agnostic strategy. The new model applies to Oracle's database, middleware and some of its business applications. The new scheme assigns Sun Microsystems Inc.'s new multicore T1 processor, also known as Niagara , a 0.25 multiplier. Therefore, an eight-core processor requires only two full licenses.

Pricing for software run on servers based on Intel Corp. or Advanced Micro Devices Inc. chips will be determined by multiplying the number of processor cores in a server by 0.5, Oracle said. All other multicore chips, such as Sun's UltraSparc IV+ or IBM 's Power, will retain the 0.75 multiplier.