The additional functions include accelerator units for speeding up data encryption and other security tasks. And the chip gets what IBM calls a "true" random number generator. Random numbers are required for security operations, and IBM says its new number generator can stymie any hackers who try to predict what the next number will be.

The Power7+ also includes a "dual chip module" that allows customers to put two processors in one socket. That could reduce per-socket software licensing costs, at least until software vendors take note and change their pricing models. The Power7+ is still socket compatible with the Power7, IBM says.

While IBM and Oracle both optimize their chips for their own servers, Oracle is more explicit that it optimizes its processors for its software as well. Oracle says customers will get the best performance if they're willing to sign a whole system over to Oracle and run its database and applications on Oracle hardware.

Its upcoming T5 processor is a 28-nanometer shrink of the T4 shown at last year's Hot Chips. When Oracle went from the T3 to the T4, it from 16 to eight in order to focus instead on improving each core's single-thread performance. The T5 will be back to 16 cores, each running at up to 3.6GHz, compared with 3GHz on the T4.

One of Oracle's goals for the T5 was to put the chips in as many as eight sockets per server with "close to linear scaling," Oracle's Sebastian Turullols said at Hot Chips.