Are you talking about Atom or XScale? XScale seems the biggest missed opportunity. I can understand the thinking that being just another ARM vendor was a step down from being the owner of an architecture (AMD, and Via, notwithstanding). But with steady improvements and investment, and riding the coat-tails of fabs Intel built, Intel could have been a an actual mobile contender today.
Bonnell which became Atom. I was pushing to make XScale be the 1GHz multi-core lead vehicle but was soundly mocked. XScale died on the vine. You're 100% correct, it was a hyuge missed opportunity.
