Oracle announces Unbreakable Enterprise Linux kernel

Oracle has spun a new version of RHEL called Oracle's Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel, claimed to be more than 75 percent faster at OLTP tasks. The Oracle-optimized Linux kernel was announced at Oracle World, which also debuted Oracle Fusion Applications, MySQL 5.5, new Java enhancements, and a Linux-ready Exalogic Elastic Cloud.

Oracle continues to resell Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) in the form of its own RHEL-based Oracle Linux, which has been previously called Unbreakable Linux. Oracle Linux will still be supported, but the similarly RHEL-based Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel is now "the only Linux kernel Oracle recommends for use with Oracle software," says the software giant.

According to Oracle, which made the announcement yesterday at Oracle World in San Francisco, Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel is more than 75 percent faster than a RHEL kernel in OLTP performance, and 200 percent faster than Infiniband messaging. It is also 137 percent faster in solid-state disk (SSD) access when used with Oracle software and hardware, claims the company.