Secret new instructions don't help a damn lot. If it's true, keeping the lid on them is pretty irrational. Relevance comes with use, and for that you need to have the information out there.
Those "secret" new instructions aren't really that secret - they even have a wikipedia entry already... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSE4
That said, there does not seem to be any official documentation about them available, though icc 9.1 already should support them.
My best guess is that intel wants to announce them with much fanfare and a new fancy name at the right occasion, whatever that may be... Doesn't make much sense to me neither but I guess the marketing guys are loving it... (I'd bet you could already get official information on these instructions under NDA if you're relevant enough)
