Research Triangle Park (NC) - IBM’s former notebooks division, now part of Lenovo, appears to be moving much faster these days. The company today announced a $399 notebook netbook under its Ideapad brand (Thinkpad=business, Ideapad=consumer) for the simple activities in your computer life.

The new Ideapad S10, scheduled to become available in October, expands Lenovo’s notebook family in the entry-level market and continues a trend that has begun with Asus’ Eee PC. Don’t expect fancy features besides its compact size (10.2" screen) as well as a light weight (just over 2 pounds), but, on most days, basic functionality is all what you need anyway and a device such as the S10 may be all you need.

There is Wi-Fi, a webcam, two USB ports, a 4-in-1 multicard reader, an ExpressCard slot, an 80 GB or 160 GB hard drive, 512 MB or 1 GB of main memory and Windows XP. A real netbook, of course, also needs Intel’s Atom processor these days, so it is no surprise that the S10 in fact will come with an Atom processor. So far it is unclear whether this will be a CPU based on the Diamondville or Silverthorne core. However, due to the high price of Silverthorne CPUs and the relatively small benefit of additional power consumption appears to be prompting netbook manufacturers to use Diamondville Z-series processors, while Silverthorne chips are more likely to be used in (more expensive) mobile Internet devices (MIDs).

According to Lenovo, "the processing performance and storage make the Ideapad S10 ideal for accommodating a variety of data, from a user’s digital music inventory to a student’s homework assignments and more."

Prices for the 1"-thin S10 will start at $399.