Is the traditional x86 processor that Intel helped to pioneer a thing of the past? Has ARM well and truly taken over as the king of all things silicon now that there are server chips to go along side all of the smartphone and tablet chips that are based on its designs by the likes of Apple and Qualcomm? AMD seems to be hedging its bets with a curious new announcement that does both.

AMD took the wraps off of its 2015 processor roadmap and the company dropped a rather sizeable bomb in the land of silicon microprocessors. It’s called Project Skybridge and for the first time ever a single motherboard will support both AMD’s x86 processors processors and the company’s new ARM57 chips.

While it’s doubtful that AMD will be offering a set of desktop motherboards for the average consumer to get a choice between the two architectures the big benefit will be to companies that make tablets that run both Google’s Android OS and Microsoft’s Windows 8 OS. Take Lenovo, for example, who use both operating systems liberally throughout their product lines but would need to buy different motherboard to make an x86 10-inch Windows tablet versus an ARM-powered 10-inch Android tablet.

We have been here before. When desktop RAM began morphing from DDR2 standards to DDR3, some manufacturers produced boards that accepted both. No-one really bought them because they were expensive, and you’ve already decided which you want by the time you buy the motherboard.

What AMD’s hopes are pinned on is that companies will buy one set of boards and use AMD’s processors interchangeably depending on the requirements for the tablet’s operating system, taking advantage of economies of scale in mobo purchasing. It’s a bold move from the company that has been a distant second to Intel on the x86 front in recent years while simultaneously losing out on the lower powered end of the market to ARM toting rivals like Qualcomm.

[Image courtesy of AnandTech]