Netbooknews has just spotted a new Samsung Chromebook at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in Beijing, and it's suspected that the machine might be using an Ivy Bridge processor (see update below) — Intel's latest line of CPUs. Unfortunately we can't make out much of the Chromebook's design, but the site reports that it is a prototype. All we can tell, for now, is that the system boots very quickly into Chrome OS, and at just about five seconds, it's twice as fast as the Series 5 Chromebook. The site reports that the speed bump is due to Google-supported improvements in Coreboot, a lightweight, Linux-based BIOS that handles the computer's hardware. We'll let you know if Google or Samsung give us any more information on this particular machine, but for now, check the video below to see what future Chromebook boot-times might be like.

Update: A source at Google has told us that the Chromebook demoed at IDF Beijing is powered by Sandy Bridge, Intel's current generation of processors. We don't know for sure, but it seems that the Chromebook Netbooknews found at IDF is the updated Samsung Series 5 Chromebook shown off at CES earlier this year, which is powered by a dual-core Celeron processor and shares a similar chassis design.



