Oracle as a hardware vendor

This topic has been written about ad-nauseum since Larry Ellison made the announcement on 9/24/08. The large "X" that hinted about this throughout the venue added to the buzz. Here is a very brief recap:
1. Oracle Exadata - A specialized storage device that returns query results, rather than data blocks to the database server
2. HP-Oracle Database Machine - A VERY big (64-CPU) database server, offered in conjunction with the above mentioned storage option.

For large terabyte sized datawarehouses, this is a compelling value proposition. We should expect the hardware offerings to be scaled down over time to serve the small-to-medium business segment. The macro effects of this hardware play by Oracle will be far reaching.