http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS5907201615.html

If the link is broken, it's because it was posted to slashdot, but essentially, there is a company that developed some nice kernel patches that will make linux boot in 200ms.

100ms boot times are apparently acheivable.

The only real problem is that this is for embedded devices and nothing really 'common market' like the motherboards most of us are using for the carpc's..