For those who came in very late the Itaniuum processor is made by Intel and many people have been predicting its demise. In 2011, Oracle was so certain that it decided to stop writing software for the chip and left HP high and dry in doing so.

HP said it had an agreement with Oracle that support for Itanium would continue, without which the equipment using the chip would become obsolete.

In the first phase of trial in 2012, Santa Clara Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg ruled that there had been a contract. The jury on Thursday decided damages.

In a statement, Oracle general counsel Dorian Daley said the company had been providing all its latest software for Itanium servers since Kleinberg's decision.

"Now that both trials have concluded, we intend to appeal both today's ruling and the prior ruling," Daley said.