X3 systems are available now for use with any application certified for Oracle Database 11g R2 and Real Application Clusters, according to a statement. They are also "fully compatible" with previous Exadata versions, allowing customers to upgrade to X3, Oracle said. Hardware pricing is the same as the previous generation but that doesn't account for the large amounts of separately licensed Oracle software the systems run.

They are available in full, half, quarter and eighth-rack configurations, with the last being a new option aimed at smaller companies.

Loaiza's remarks avoided competitive trash talk of the kind Ellison dished out on Sunday when unveiling X3. In particular, Ellison singled out rival SAP's HANA in-memory database platform, calling its capacity "very small" in contrast to Exadata X3.

Ellison's remarks were "misleading to customers" and "completely false," SAP executive board member and technology chief Vishal Sikka said in an interview Monday.

SAP has created a 100TB HANA system using only DRAM and could upgrade it to 250TB if it desired, Sikka added.