AMD is entering what they're calling a 'disruptive server strategy', where they've just acquired an Intel micro-server partner, SeaMicro. Until now, SeaMicro had been building micro-servers using Intel's Sandy Bridge, or Atom-based processors.

AMD have reportedly paid $344 million for SeaMicro, and is set to use them to push itself into the server market as a component, and also, hardware supplier. This is a setback for Intel, as SeaMicro's server designs were flexible enough to accommodate up to 786 Atom processors in one server.

SeaMicro won't even need to have any special configurations to support AMD's x86-based chips and are flexible enough to accept ARM-based chips as well as MIPS-based processors. SeaMicro and Intel were quite close, where SeaMicro had been Intel's main partner in the burgeoning micro-server market, which has been forecasted to take 10-percent of the total server market by 2015.

AMD CEO Rory Read has said:

We are accelerating AMD's transformation into an agile, disruptive innovator capable of staking a data center leadership position. The unmatched combination of AMD's processing capabilities, SeaMicro's system and fabric technology, and our ambidextrous technology approach uniquely positions AMD with a compelling, differentiated position to attack the fastest growing segment of the server market.