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Someone pass the salt, please, because all we’ve got to go on here is the word of a web site called Shanzhai — which generally covers news of cheap Chinese knockoffs of netbooks and other computers. But Shanzhai.com is reporting that both Lenovo and Acer could launch new netbooks based ont he NVIDIA Tegra platform and running the Google Chrome Operating System as early as this month.

The word comes from a source that the web site describes as “reliable,” but I’d still recommend keeping that salt shaker handy.

If true, it would mean a few things. First, it would indicate that the Google Chrome Operating System is much further along in development than Google implied when the company announced the OS in July. At the time, Google said a pre-release build could be available this fall, but that actual products running Chrome OS wouldn’t hit the streets until next year.

Second, it would mean that two of the world’s biggest computer makers were getting ready to back NVIDIA’s Tegra platform, which combines a low power ARM processor with a high performance NVIDIA graphics chip. NVIDIA has been pushing the new platform pretty hard, but so far we’ve only seen prototype devices from lesser known companies like Mobinnova.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Lenovo, Acer, and other PC makers dip their toes in the Tegra/Chrome waters, perhaps to sell standalone devices, or perhaps to offer low power 3G-enabled netbooks through wireless carriers. But I seriously doubt we’ll be seeing any of these devices hit the market in the next month or two. Still, I’d love to be proven wrong.