Woo—it looks like HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Show Image
(http://www.highlycontrasting.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/MyspaceOdyssey.jpg)
Confirmed:
(http://i.imgur.com/nxPTcvc.png)
Great to see Trackball boards making a comeback! The layout and some of the details indicate that this is probably a descendant of iOne's Scorpius-35 model (which has been around for forever), so there's at least a chance that it'll use Cherry switches-- although, at the same time, there are clearly some changes, so I wouldn't put it past them to have opted for Kailh on this version.
I hope we see more experimentation in this direction. As someone who already has a trackball to the right of the keyboard (though, not attached), I wouldn't derive that much of a benefit from this layout, though. I'd like to see manufacturers play around a bit with other ways of integrating a trackball (or other pointing devices), and in particular more investigation of ways of integrating a pointing device into or near the arrow key area. Variations on this sort of idea:
Show Image
(http://thumbs1.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/mafKqhErGEorNQ8tmaCIsnQ.jpg)
Also, it's a shame that they backlit the keyboard but didn't go for a backlit trackball (meaning, a clear ball with LEDs to make it glow a color). The new illuminated CST L-Tracs look pretty awesome...
Show Image
(http://i.ytimg.com/vi/IRggWdvdJfo/hqdefault.jpg)
My L-Trac has all the electronics for backlighting (thru-holes for LEDs, etc.) but the chip is not currently providing power to those solder points. I've emailed CST to see if they have any plans to support DIY-ers who want to add their own backlighting, but it's been over a month without a response.