Regarding keeping secrets, if that's one's perspective and belief. I think the whole thing would be too big to hide. So, you give it a legitimate purpose, and

Regarding keeping secrets, if that's one's perspective and belief. I think the whole thing would be too big to hide. So, you give it a legitimate purpose, and keep its subversion to yourself. In reality, Intel was able to market it legitimately for its features. May well have needed to, in the face of competition. But what may have been discussed in back rooms, with other interests -- ones that can't be ignored, and that also represent a big chunk of business? (Both purchases, and influence on trade, surveillance, and any number of other factors that affect one's business.) Anyway, I think a whole processing subsystem would be too big and obvious to hide. Hiding functionality within it? Quite plausible. And we have precedents, in this regard. (Fiber trunk and other splitting/tapping, e.g. the "ATT room"; the Clipper Chip agenda; weakening of NIST encryption standards; the scope of "inadvertant" domestic data collection;...)