Good news! The second generation Oracle Database Appliance to be known as "Oracle Database Appliance X3-2" was released on March 5th,
2013. Oracle Database Appliance X3-2 is built using the Sun Server X3-2 servers
(the same servers that are used as compute nodes in Exadata environments) and is a substantially
more powerful system with a small price differential from the earlier model. Storage Shelf consists of a 2 rack-u unit and an identical expansion storage shelf is also available. You now have 18TB of raw storage which is expandable to 36TB of raw storage
(all ASM managed) within a single Database Appliance architecture and configuration. The maximum CPU power increases from 24 cores before to 36
cores, while the new system now has 512 GB of memory (2x256 GB), a quantum jump
from the 192 GB (2x96GB) before. The local available disk storage capacity
increases from 500GB to 600GB.
Oracle Database Appliance X3-2 when used as a Virtualized Platform
(support for virtualization on Oracle Database Appliance was announced in
February 2013) can be an extremely powerful system with very substantial
further improvement in the already compelling value proposition of Oracle
Database Appliance. On Oracle Database Appliance X3-2 you can consolidate
multiple database environments. With the Virtualized Platform deployment, you
can consolidate entire multi-tier environments within a single Oracle Databse
Appliance X3-2 system. The older model continues to be available until May
31st, 2013. You can find more details at
http://www.oracle.com/us/products/database/database-appliance/overview/index.html