Oracle Expands Database to Ampere Chips, Dealing a Blow to Intel

(Bloomberg) -- Oracle Corp. said its industry-leading database software can be used with a new type of processor for the first time in decades, another challenge to the dominance of Intel Corp.’s technology in the lucrative data center market.

The latest version of the database software can now be used on servers with chips from Ampere Computing, Oracle said Wednesday in a blog post. Customers can run the database on Oracle’s cloud service or on-premises servers with Ampere’s processors that use technology from UK-based Arm Ltd.

“We get more performance for dramatically less cost,” Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison said of Ampere’s processors, speaking via video at an event in Menlo Park, California, hosted by the chipmaker. “We have much better economics.”

Previously, Oracle’s database could work with processors from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Intel has lost its once-iron grip on the data center processor market, where its share had topped 99%. AMD has made gains with new offerings, and companies such as top cloud provider Amazon.com Inc. have built their own chips, using Arm’s technology.

“It’s a major commitment to move to a new supplier,” Ellison said. “We’ve moved to a new architecture. We think this is the future.”

Ampere is a five-year-old startup based in Intel’s hometown of Santa Clara, California.