Last month, IBM silently silently revealed it’s preparing to launch a 24-core Power 10 processor particularly for the benefit of an Oracle database, and Oracle does not understand why.An announcement dated Dec. 13 called “a declaration of general instructions” detailed IBM’s strategies around the Power S1014 server. The S1014 server is a single-socket, 4U rack installed server with 16 NVMe SSDs and a maximum memory capability of 64GB. The file said in part:
“IBM plans to reveal a high-density 24-core processor for the IBM Power S1014 system (MTM 9105-41B) to attend to application environments utilizing an Oracle Database with the Standard Edition 2 (SE2) licensing model. It means to integrate a robust calculate throughput with the remarkable dependability and schedule features of the IBM Power platform while adhering to Oracle Database SE2 licensing standards.”
Typically the Power processor in the S1014 has four or 8 cores, however IBM plans to increase that to 24, specifically citing the Oracle Database Standard Edition 2 (SE2) licensing model. The SE2 licensing model is on a per-socket basis, and not per core basis. The majority of enterprise software application applications, like VMware, are on a per core basis, however some are per physical CPU.In the case of Oracle Database SE2, the client’s license remains the exact same no matter the number of cores in the socket. And going from 4/8 cores to 24 cores will be a huge performance boost.But the 1014 has
its imperfections, such as PCI Express 3 IO and 10GBase-T networking, neither of which is the leading end of the efficiency scale. Servers are coming out now with PCIe 5, which is 4 times faster than PCIe 3, and 100Gb networking.
The concern is, why is IBM doing a favor for its chief competitor in the RDBMS market? Tripling or quadrupling the number of cores in a chip is not minor and will involve some cost. Does IBM anticipate to make that refund? Oracle Database SE2 isn’t even Oracle’s top database; the Business Edition (EE) is.It left Bob O’Donnell, primary expert at Technalysis Research study, likewise scratching his head. “My guess is that IBM has a bunch of consumers who run Oracle databases and they figured this is a reasonably easy method for them to offer a best in class, Oracle database solution that navigates these odd licensing problems that all the huge SaaS service providers have,” he told me.
But he admitted confusion as to why Oracle selected SE and not the EE.A statement from an IBM representative stated “Including IBM’s existing 24-core dual-chip Power10 processor module to the S1014 system not only provides 3x more core density and compute throughput in a trusted and safe and secure enterprise-grade single socket system but also enables customers to maximize their investment in Oracle Requirement Edition 2 (SE2) and other software application.”
Which is completely real, and totally stops working to respond to the question. IBM declined to comment further.Oracle, for its part, said that it did not request this core increase from IBM, and for any other questions stated “you’ll need to ask IBM.”
Copyright © 2023 IDG Communications, Inc.
