everyone in the SPARC engineering is gone, apart very few people for the sustaining in AA team.
M8+ is an overclocked M8, nothing new, that will give only very few % more in performances and it is so power hungry that will be installed only in the M8-8 chassis...... if it ever sees the light that is. rumours are that nor LE nor SC have still approved the release of the chip, only ES has given a formal "technical" ok.
Oracle is no more interested in being an HW provider be it onprem or cloud, full stop. this was made clear on sept17, but was clear to people in the know a lot before.
future is ARM, and Oracle will outsource hw needs to some already identified and invested-in startups. Oracle Linux for ARM is already being developed by WC's team, and it is well on track.
of the current hw portfolio only ExaCC (and maybe a CC version of ZDLRA) will survive, and that's in the short term, don't expect current portfolio to survive the next CY. the new roadmap and strategy will be anticipated to some selected customers in OOW, and made public in dec18.
Originally posted by @VExzV53-1jvc.