Dive Brief:
- Oracle announced a new line of servers yesterday based on a new Sparc processor called the M7, CIO reported.
- The company has embedded software functions into the silicon to improve the performance and security of applications.
- It's the first new Sparc processor core designed entirely in-house by Oracle, aided by Oracle’s purchase of Sun five years ago.
Dive Insight:
The new line of servers, announced at OpenWorld, include a memory protection technology called "silicon-secured memory," -- a new method of security for in-memory databases. The technology prevents malicious programs from accessing parts of main memory that they're not supposed to. The new services also include an acceleration engine that “allows data to be decompressed in near-real time for analytics.”
"Both of those are very interesting, because they're features I don't think a company that makes just chips -- that didn't have the software guys working with them -- would have invented," said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight64.
The new processor has 32 cores, four times the cache per core as its predecessor, and doubles memory bandwidth. The new servers also allow for live migration of virtual machines while encrypted.
The company said the M7 will go on sale November 2 in new models of Oracle's T- and M-series servers.
The memory protection technology could be particularly beneficial to businesses because it prevents a common attack method used by hackers.
