>"This might well be the beginning of the end for x86 as we know it."
That would require that Intel to stand still with its Atom line. I'm quite sure that Intel, with its well-known corporate paranoia about the marketplace, will continue to compete in low-power x86 technology. Even if AMD delivers on this hybrid with a good product, I expect they'll still have a helluva fight from Intel on their hands.
Just thinking about it superficially (and in general not just server market) it seems ARM is eating Atom's lunch. Atom has to try very hard to cut into mobile market. I can see maybe netbooks, kiosks but how big is that compared to smart phones.
Now in the lower power, micro-server/blade market I can see how Atom might be a good competitor to ARM for the software that can't compile to ARM easily. But I am also not sure how big that market is.
With virtualization and containerization a large powerful Xeon machine carved into hundreds of containers might be just as good or even better.
That would require that Intel to stand still with its Atom line. I'm quite sure that Intel, with its well-known corporate paranoia about the marketplace, will continue to compete in low-power x86 technology. Even if AMD delivers on this hybrid with a good product, I expect they'll still have a helluva fight from Intel on their hands.