Microsoft math: dual core licensed as one chip

TalkBack 22 of 42:

Next »

« Previous

• Thread View
• Flat View

What you said:

Does Microsoft have a per CPU license? Can't speak for things like SQL server but their OS is setup to run on a certain number of CPUs but they don't charge per CPU. For example, XP Pro will run on up to 2 CPUs, but there's no price difference between a single or dual CPU installation. Similarly, Windows Server 2003 Standard will run on 1,2 or 4 CPUs, same price. Enterprise Edition will use up to 8 and Datacenter up to 64. Again, one price for each. Now you could argue that the different editions are their way of charging for multiple CPUs but there are other differences in the editions as well.

The article is about server applications (BizTalk, SQL Server) of which you can't speak for. XP is desktop, only! Windows 2003 is just the host OS and not related to the context of the article. The pricing may change as you scale the CPU count (though slightly less with multicore) for server based application. This does not mean that the server OS will change in price! This is server applications, such that any desktop stuff (Windows XP, XP Pro) is not even aplicable.

I started off with XP as an example then also went into Windows 2003 server CPU limitations. If you want to run Windows 2003 Enterprise server on 1 CPU or 8 it's the same price.

Thse are OS's and not server based applications. This is not the same. Windows 2003 != SQL Server.

Now what I suspect the article was really clarifying is that Microsoft will treat an 8 CPU/16 core (assuming 2 cores per socket) as the same number of CPUs. But they don't actually charge more for their server software if you're running multiple CPUs.

Correct, it has to do with server applicion pricing, not the host OS! They are having to rethink their pricing for server application (but not the host OS).

Posted by: B.O.F.H.   Posted on: 10/19/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• Building the Virtualized Enterprise with VMware Iinfrastructure VMware VMware virtualization software has been adopted by over 120,000 enterprise ... Download Now
• Using Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS to Achieve Highly Available, Load-Balanced Clusters Dell The Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS operating system integrates Cluster ... Download Now
• The True Costs of Virtual Server Solutions VMware In an economic environment that is repeatedly heralding the message "do ... Download Now