Yes, this is correct. Further, I am unaware of any partitioning method that qualifies as "Hard Partitioning" for commodity X86 hardware. Except *maybe* Oracle's VM -- there is nothing "hardware based" about it, but I believe I saw something a while ago saying that Oracle has classified this as "hard" partitioning. *If* this is the case (you'll need to confirm that for yourself) then you could -- conceivably -- use Oracle VM to run Oracle databases on one set of cores, and VMware (assuming it works on Oracle VM) on the other set. You'll suffer a performance hit on both, I suspect. I think you will probably be happier if you spend a few more dollars on hardware, and purchase two servers with one quad-core processor each. This will greatly disambiguate your licensing situation, and probably give (perhaps much) better performance as well. Remember, there are many more shared resources within a server than just CPUs... The OP did not say anything about database editions. Bill, you might also want to be aware that with the new license rules regarding Multi-Chip-Modules, the hardware you described will not be (cannot be) eligible for Standard-Edition One licenses if your quad-core processors are manufactured by Intel. (Actually, because Oracle seems to have accidentally mis-worded the new license rules, the hardware may be ineligible for SE of any flavour with CPUs from any manufacturer.) On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 5:02 PM, Allen, Brandon <Brandon.Allen@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I don't know if it's possible or not, but Oracle requires you to license > ALL the CPUs in the box, regardless of how many you allow Oracle to run > on unless you implement what they call "hard partitioning". For more > info: http://www.oracle.com/corporate/pricing/partitioning.pdf > > Regards, > Brandon > > > > Privileged/Confidential Information may be contained in this message or > attachments hereto. Please advise immediately if you or your employer do not > consent to Internet email for messages of this kind. Opinions, conclusions > and other information in this message that do not relate to the official > business of this company shall be understood as neither given nor endorsed > by it. > > -- > //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l > > > -- Cheers, -- Mark Brinsmead Senior DBA, The Pythian Group http://www.pythian.com/blogs