The new SQL boxes we're moving to now (with hyperthreading) report 80 cores, (I believe they are running 2 - 20 core processors). If this means that we would move from 2 per processor licenses under the current model to 40 (or even 80) under the new model, unless the cost of a per processor license is coming down, then SQL is going to price itself out of the game. With those kind of licensing costs it would be more cost effective to run Oracle...

Is this definitely a given, or just a rumour? How sure are we that Microsoft is going to slit SQL's throat like this?