Oracle has announced new Sun SPARC Enterprise-T systems at Oracle Openworld in San Francisco.

Highlights of the new systems:

• SPARC T3-1B: single-socket 16-core CPU @ 1.65Ghz, blade, up to 128G RAM
• SPARC T3-1: Single-socket 16-core CPU @ 1.65Ghz, 2RU form factor, up to 128G RAM, eight or sixteen 300G 2.5″ SAS drives
• SPARC T3-2: Dual-socket 16-core CPUs @ 1.65Ghz, 3RU form factor, up to 256G RAM, up to six 300G 2.5″ SAS drives
• SPARC T3-4: Quad-socket 16-core CPUs @ 1.65Ghz, 5RU form factor, up to 512G RAM, up to eight 300G 2.5″ SAS drives

According to this article, Oracle and NetApp have agreed to settle their patent dispute regarding ZFS.

“Announced this morning via NetApp’s website, the companies have agreed to dismiss their pending patent litigation, which began when NetApp sued Sun Microsystems in September of 2007 and became Oracle’s problem when it acquired Sun last year. NetApp and Oracle are tight-lipped about the matter only stating that they both “seek to have the lawsuits dismissed without prejudice” and that the terms of the agreement are confidential.”

Good news – Joerg Mollenkamp writes about changes to the licensing terms for Solaris, Solaris Express, and Solaris Cluster:

“I’m not a licensing lawyer, but:

“Except for any included software package or file that is licensed to you by Oracle under different license terms, we grant you a perpetual (unless terminated as provided in this agreement), nonexclusive, nontransferable, limited License to use the Programs only for the purpose of developing, testing, prototyping and demonstrating your applications, and not for any other purpose.”

and

“All rights not expressly granted above are hereby reserved. If you want to use the Programs for any purpose other than as permitted under this agreement, including but not limited to distribution of the Programs or any use of the Programs for your internal business purposes (other than developing, testing, prototyping and demonstrating your applications) or for any commercial production purposes, you must obtain a valid license permitting such use.”

sounds like this evaluation period many people were annoyed of is gone for the purposes described in the first snippet from the licensing aggreement.”