Chrome OS-powered devices surfacing in mid-October?

Google’s Chrome OS is not meant to be hitting netbooks/smartbooks until 2010. However, there seems to be constant chatter coming from Asia that devices will be released this year sporting the new operating system.

The first devices to see the new OS are expected to be powered by the Chinese-designed Loongson CPU. Devices with the Loongson 2F CPU are designed to run Linux software.

Shanzai is reporting that Chrome OS devices will start to appear in mid-October. Netbooks will be the first recipients of the new OS with smartbooks following. There’s not too much time to find out whether all of this is true, personally I’d take all of this news with a pinch of salt.