Oracle licens - a bios setting solution with Intel Xeon E series?

Hi all

I'm currently working with a problem i guess some of you also have experienced and I hope you will share your knowledge with me.

Oracle's licensing policy is not the easiest to work with especially when talking about cpu core count and VMWare or in general all x86 virtualization except Oracles own. In a nutshell, according to the license agreement, you have to pay for all cores on a cpu, even if you only use half. No way around it!

Then to my question. In some servers, like IBM and HP, based on Intel's E56xx series it is possible to disable cores in the BIOS because of the cpu architectures power management features. Does anyone have experience with using this BIOS feature and is it valid in accordance with Oracle licensing? Google does not seem to have the answer - so is this just a unconsidered possibility or am I just looking in the wrong places?

And before you tell me to consult my Oracle sales rep., the be ensured i will. But i would like to be a little prepared before i contact him.

Thanks in advance for your answers - they will be appreciated!