Is that anything like the "secure enclave" we've heard so much about re: Apple iPhone, at least the current versions? Not sure how much benefit or utility that would add to a server vs. phone CPU, but it's interesting anyway.
The TPM (where present) is analogous to the secure enclave, although the mechanism is a bit different. The ME is more of an "insecure exclave": it has a lot of access to the rest of the system, but the OS and userland cannot use it for anything useful. It's designed to allow access from outside over the network connection. Useful for ILM systems, but very frustrating for people who aren't in a datacenter and don't like it being there.
IIRC the secure enclave equivalent on x86 is the TPM module, and/or Intel SGX and AMD's Secure Processor (using a secondary CPU running ARM TrustZone); both are independent of Intel's ME.
