> A while ago, my business partner and I did some researching into

databases.

> The only one we could find (although we didn't speak to Oracle) was IBM's

DB2.

>
> IIRC, they priced the DB based on the number of processors that the server
> machine had. I think the figure for a single processor model was of the
> order of US$ 2 000 or so at the time.
>
> The price for a dual processor DB was of the order of US$ 16 000. I think
> the next step was US$ 35 000 ...
>
> It's REAL difficult -and expensive - to make a database engine that can
> handle multiple CPUs ...

Exactly.

Although, it should be said, that the "classic" architecture uses multiple
CPUs just fine!

It does require more memory though.

With regards,

Martijn Tonies
Database Workbench - developer tool for InterBase, Firebird, MySQL & MS SQL
Server.
Upscene Productions
http://www.upscene.com