Oracle Launches New Processor, Data Warehouse And Solaris 11

New product introductions, including a new version of the Solaris operating system, dominated the first full day of the Oracle Open World conference Monday in San Francisco. In addition to introducing a new SPARC processor and an upgrade of the Sun/Oracle Exadata data warehousing appliance, the day also included the first public appearance by former HP CEO Mark Hurd in his new job as co-president of Oracle.

Hurd got right down to business, unveiling the Oracle Exadata Database Machine, version X2-8, a high-capacity system for online transaction processing, data warehousing and consolidated workloads. It features two 8-socket Sun/Oracle servers with 128 Intel CPUs and two terabytes of memory, as well as five terabytes of Exadata SmartFlash Cache to access frequently-used data quickly.

This is the fourth configuration of Exadata coming to market and it solves some of the key problems customers have with databases, said Hurd: "You put out this query and you gotta go out and find the data and that's why search takes so long. Exadata changed the game."

Oracle is also introducing a new version of its Solaris operating system. Monday, Oracle previewed the release of the Solaris 11, with the final release expected some time in 2011. Solaris was created by Sun Microsystems, which Oracle acquired earlier this year. Solaris 11 improvements will include the elimination of 50 percent of the system restarts needed to activate updates to the OS, said John Fowler, Oracle executive vice president of server and storage systems, who held a similar post at Sun.

Also new from the Sun side of the business is the new SPARC T3 processor and T3-based systems. The processor will be the industry's first 16-core server processor, Oracle stated, adding that a server system running SPARC T3 can range from a single 16-core blade to a 4-socket, 64-core server with 512 threads in a five-rack unit. SPARC processors were co-created by Sun and Fujitsu, which have each installed them in their servers. Throughout the conference, Oracle has been promoting integrated systems built with their SPARC processors on Sun/Oracle servers running the Solaris OS and Oracle Fusion middleware and database software.Oracle CEO Ellison Sunday rolled out the company's Exalogic Elastic Cloud machine, which is an integrated hardware and software system designed to create private cloud environments within enterprises for running either Java or non-Java-based applications. The system is based on the Exadata Database Machine, 64-bit x86 processors, InfiniBand I/O and runs either Solaris or the Oracle Linux operating systems.

Hurd made no reference to the circumstances that forced him out of HP and presented the opportunity for him to work at Oracle. "I'm thrilled to be here and glad to be part of the team," said Hurd to a few thousand attendees. He was forced out of HP last month after a scandal, but hired soon after by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison.

HP immediately sued Hurd on the grounds that he would be taking HP trade secrets to Oracle, but Monday, HP announced a settlement of the lawsuit. "Mr. Hurd will adhere to his obligations to protect HP's confidential information while fulfilling his responsibilities at Oracle," read a news release from the company. Details of the settlement were not disclosed, but the San Jose Mercury News reported Tuesday that Hurd agreed to give up $13.6 million worth of restricted HP stock grants that was part of a severance package given him when he left HP in August.