Since when are mainframes are a totally different area? The IBM zSeries machines now use the POWER5 chips, and have even better LPAR functionality that is mentioned in the article (more partitions, more processors per system, etc).

Also, no small servers? I don't know who you've been buying from, but tear up your contract with them right now. IBM offers really low end SMB servers (ie. the i5 520 Express Edition) that use POWER5 chips and have the same pricepoint as their Intel-based xSeries brothers.

I wouldn't predict a global shift to POWER chips within 10 years, but certainly the entire server market could easily be dominated within that time. IBM's Linux oriented push over the last few years has really strengthened the POWER5 offerings. Allowing a free OS onto hardware with these LPAR and micro-management capabilities, with price points as low as they go could easily push these servers into the office of every Joe Server Admin who wants to make his management duties a little easier (not to mention his server performance a little better).

While writing a book on the capabilities of the iSeries systems, I used one of the medium sized machines for 10 hours everyday, 6 days a week for 2 months solid. Being able to run 3 independent Linux OSes and a the i5/OS simutaneously was incredible. Dynamic resource allocation gave the system that boost it needed to convince me that it could be a top seller without much effort.

I don't see a shift to POWER happening for the end user anytime soon, if ever. Intel and AMD can easily beat the price on any POWER chip. But the POWER chips aren't designed to be in your home PC, they're designed to power your server. And that's what they're good at.