Oracle Corp and Sun Microsystems Tuesday launched a new database machine, the Exadata V2, which incorporates the technology of both the companies - it effectively combines Sun hardware with Oracle software.

The new Exadata V2 database machine was unveiled by Larry Ellison, Oracle's CEO, and John Fowler, Sun's Executive Vice President. The machine, like other database machines, is a combination of servers and database software - while the servers perform heavy computing tasks, database software enables companies to store and retrieve stored information, like payroll data.

The launch of the new Oracle-Sun Exadata V2, which comes at a time when Oracle's proposed $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun still remains undecided amid antitrust review, clearly shows that Oracle has given Hewlett-Packard a cold shoulder - more so as the earlier generation of the device was built by Oracle and Hewlett-Packard!

Going by the claims of Oracle and Sun, the new Exadata machine - based on Sun's "Galaxy" line of x64 blade servers - is apparently "the world's first OLTP database machine with FlashFire technology," working two-times faster than the preceding generation of the device.

The specs of the Exadata V2 reveal that it has 2.5 times more memory, vis-à-vis the existing database appliances. The storage assortment used in the new machine is based on an X4275 server, whose 2 TB disks allow twice the capacity of the storage node of earlier database machines.