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While Marvell is pushing its new Armada 610 chipset with 3D and HD graphics capabilities, the company is also showing off products this week based on its existing Armada 510 technology. Somehow I missed this one last night, but the folks at Engadget spotted an unnamed smartbook prototype with a 12.1 inch display, a full sized keyboard, and an Armada 510 CPU. Engadget described the notebook as one of the thinnest they’ve seen, and I’ll keep an eye out for it on the CES show floor this week.

The ODM behind the prototype is looking for a partner that could bundle it with 3G mobile broadband and sell it, likely at a subsidized price of around $200. Apparently the smartbook gets about 4 hours of battery life, which is kind of shabby compared with the 10+ hours we’re seeing from other ARM-based smartbooks and even netbooks with Intel Atom N450 processors. But the difference is that you can use a very thin and small battery in an ARM-based machine like this to keep weight and price down while still providing decent, if not spectacular run time.

The prototype runs Ubuntu Linux and can handle 720p HD video playback.

In other news, Marvell has taped Marvel comics visionary Stan Lee to hang out at the company’s booth on the show floor for a little while this week. I can’t decide: funny or sad?