We’d heard the HP Slate lastly had a date with destiny (and corporate pocketbooks) sometime this fall , and it is looking like the device is nigh — a number of boutique online retailers are taking orders for an HP Slate 500, which purportedly comes with an Intel Atom Z540 CPU, 8.9-inch WSVGA LED-backlit screen, 2GB of DDR2 storage, a 64GB solid state drive, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, a webcam, a two-cell battery and Windows 7 Professional installed, all for somewhere around the vicinity of $800 to $900.

What’s more, CNET ‘s just stumbled upon a document that apparently details the same, plus an HP Slate Digital Pen (no doubt for those who abhor sausages ) and a rear-facing 3 megapixel camera. We’d chalk up the CNET leaks to old prototype documentation and the e-tailer product listings to wishful thinking if either appeared on their own, but together we have to imagine there is some sort of wind a’ blowing.