I'm hoping that this is really good news for Zen. Because you're right, the server market is a lot less tied to x86 than the desktop market is.
So why would they sign this deal when it would probably be easier to use RISC-V or ARM or MIPS or ...? Perhaps AMD gave them a private demo of Zen and they realized that it was better than all of their other alternatives, even including other architectures.
But if they had their hearts set on x86, unless they could get Intel to play ball (highly unlikely), AMD was their only option even if Zen sucks.
I agree and think the only way they made this deal is if AMD showed that Zen is better than any of the other alternatives. That probably isn't saying much since most of the alternatives are pretty bad, but they probably don't have another Bulldozer on their hands either.
So why would they sign this deal when it would probably be easier to use RISC-V or ARM or MIPS or ...? Perhaps AMD gave them a private demo of Zen and they realized that it was better than all of their other alternatives, even including other architectures.
But if they had their hearts set on x86, unless they could get Intel to play ball (highly unlikely), AMD was their only option even if Zen sucks.