I think if MIPS were going to get in this space (which really they should have been trying to do, instead of chasing the mobile tail) they would have succeeded

I think if MIPS were going to get in this space (which really they should have been trying to do, instead of chasing the mobile tail) they would have succeeded already, since things like the Cavium chips seem closer to what a lot of these people really want than anything ARM had until recently. The end of MIPS as an independent company has definitely created huge questions about the future viability of the architecture. If I understand the deal right Imagination (of PowerVR) got the day-to-day company, and a holding group, including ARM, got access to the design patents. That means future ARM chips are likely to incorporate more of whatever advantages the MIPS teams had been hoping to get. I think the only certainty in all this is Intel are going to be upset one way or another. ARM can simply redefine what people mean by ARM architecture every couple of years, whereas x86 does not move so quickly. Intel will either end up fabbing ARM designs, which is a way to expose just how much they've relied on (great) fab tech to stay ahead, or they'll stick to the x86 guns and slowly but surely the combined mass of everyone else in the semiconductor business will chip them away.