In a surprising turn of events, Google‘s enigmatic Fuchsia operating system might be making its way onto Android devices, not as a full-fledged replacement, but as a virtualized inhabitant.
Fuchsia OS was first introduced in 2016 and appeared on its first commercial device in 2021 with the launch of the first-generation Nest Hub. But its reach hasn’t extended beyond the Nest Hub so far. However, a recent report suggests Fuchsia OS might run as a virtual machine on Android devices.
What Fuchsia does offer is a distinct foundation compared to Android and ChromeOS. It ditches the modified Linux kernel approach and is built from the ground up using a microkernel named Zircon. This microkernel architecture promises benefits in efficiency, flexibility, and security by minimizing the amount of trusted code in the system.
The new twist comes in the form of a project dubbed “microfuchsjia.” This project is reportedly aimed to enable Fuchsia to run on existing devices through virtualization.
Virtualization creates a software-based replica of a physical device, allowing it to operate in a separate computing environment. This isolation ensures that programs running on the primary OS and within the virtual machine do not interfere with each other.
Reports from the Fuchsia Gerrit code repository suggest that microfuchsia will use virtualization software like QEMU and pKVM. The latter, developed by Google, focuses on layered security for isolated workload execution. Interestingly, Google also created a lightweight Android variant called “microdroid” for this purpose.
The potential functionality of microfuchsia on Android devices remains unclear at the moment. However, similarities to microdroid suggest it might be used for running tasks that demand heightened security.
Also, the reason for a separate Fuchsia solution, given microdroid’s existence, is yet to be revealed. It is possible that Google views Fuchsia as a more secure and performant option for virtualized workloads within the Android ecosystem.
(Via)
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