ARM offers two types of licenses for its CPUs. Companies can take an architectural license, which allows them to design a processor from scratch based on the ARM architecture. Alternatively, they can license a processor design that ARM has already created and then enhance it with some of their own technology.

It's a "poorly kept secret" that ARM will announce its first 64-bit processor designs at its conference next week, Brookwood said. So AMD may well announce that it will license the design for use in SeaMicro servers.

AMD could build a system-on-chip that combines the ARM CPU with SeaMicro's custom chip. Melding the parts together on one chip would help reduce costs and enable even higher-density server designs.

That work would take time, however. If AMD were to make a 64-bit processor design available later this year, it would take a chip maker at least 12 to 18 months to turn that into a finished product, Brookwood said.

By that estimate, an ARM-based SeaMicro server would be in the market in 2014.