Re: oracle EE pricing

  • From: Mark Brinsmead <pythianbrinsmead@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: Bradd Piontek <piontekdd@xxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:46:38 -0700

exactly.  The "trick" here is to find a hex-core processor (or any
core-count, for that matter) that is *not* implemented as a
multi-chip-module.  Sadly, the license's language around this subject is
disappointingly imprecise.

It does not way, for example what *kind* of chips in the MCM are to be
counted as "sockets", so a (fictitious) quad core processor implement with:

   - two dual-core processor dies, plus
   - 4 SDRAM chips, plus
   - 2 clock multipliers

could -- perhaps ligitimately -- be considered as *eight* "sockets" (2 + 4
+2 = 8, as I recall) under the terms of the OLSA, and would therefore be
completely ineligible for standard edition licenses.  This despite the fact
that a well educated and (reasonably) well informed customer would probably
count only the "processor" chips, and consider this to be *two* sockets, and
thus potentially eligible for either SE or SE-1.

Personally, I think Oracle Corp really *intended* the "two socket"
interpretation here, not the "eight socket" interpretation.  This is how I
would *expect* a reasonable person (with perhaps a post-graduate degree in
computer architecture) to interpret these rules.

Sadly, though, "little" questions like this one are only likely to resolved
by lawyers.  And judges.  And courts.  And lots and lots of money.


On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 9:48 AM, Bradd Piontek <piontekdd@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I"ve been trying to get my head around this interpretation for a while. I'm
> not sure this is correct (although it could be). A socket can have multiple
> cores on them. Some of the newer models don't implement th em via
> Multi-chip-modules. I can see how to Hex-Core chips could be used for
> SE/SE-One. A core <> a socket.
>
> Bradd Piontek
>   The Pythian Group
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 10:27 AM, Allen, Brandon <
> Brandon.Allen@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>>  Mark, are you sure it’s permitted to license SE-1 on a 12-core server?
>> I thought SE1 could only be licensed on a max of 2 cores according to this:
>>
>>
>>
>> http://www.oracle.com/corporate/pricing/databaselicensing.pdf
>>
>>
>>
>> From p.2:
>>
>> “Oracle Standard Edition One may only be licensed on servers that have a
>> maximum capacity of 2 sockets. “
>>
>>
>>
>> From p.3:
>>
>> “When licensing Oracle programs with Standard Edition One or Standard
>> Edition in the product name, a processor is counted equivalent to a socket”
>>
>>
>>
>> Maybe I’m misinterpreting it?
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Brandon
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:
>> oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On Behalf Of *Mark Brinsmead
>>
>>
>> Yeah, $10K to license Oracle SE-1 on a 12-core database server
>>
>> (And you can build a pretty darned powerful database server on SE-1 these
>> days!)
>>
>>
>>
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>


-- 
Cheers,
-- Mark Brinsmead
  Senior DBA,
  The Pythian Group
  http://www.pythian.com/blogs

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