At Oracle, the strategy is all about designing IP-rich hardware and software that are engineered from the gound up to work together, says Juan Loaiza, Oracle senior vice-president for systems technologies.

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That's not surprising as it's been among the few where the software giant has controlled "the whole widget" -- choosing the processor, designing the hardware, and developing not only the operating system and user interface, but a host of licensing standards, services and infrastructure supporting Xbox Live.

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