Oracle Addresses Multi-core Licensing

Oracle has announced a new licensing scheme to address the move to multi-core computing in the enterprise. Perhaps there is something to learn here for vendors of embedded systems components. Under the new model, Oracle will still charge for each core that its software runs on. However, there will be discounting for computers/servers running multiple cores. In an article in the Financial Times today, the example provided is Sun's new 8-core processor on which the discount would be 75% or the equivalent of 2 full Oracle licenses for the chip.

Embedded Systems vendors are starting to run into similar situations. For vendors using run-time or production licensing this can pose a challenge. Of course, vendors offering royalty licensing should be aggressively pursing multi-core projects where they will likely have an advantage in cost. As multi-core becomes more commonplace and perhaps the rule rather than the exception, vendors will need to consider alternative licensing models or aggressive discounting to remain competitive.