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| MicroDroid: An abstract version of Android for virtual devices |
Google developed MicroDroid, and the company said: This is a Linux image based on Android. As per the description, it is used for virtual devices and is intended to be an abstract version of the Android GSI public image. .
System Map is an abstract version of open source Android, and MicroDroid appears to have been minimized.
The aim of this project might be to run a single version of Android on a hypervisor to enable virtualization through a single Android application instead of providing a complete additional desktop environment.
The project may be part of Google's growing effort to virtualize Android devices to improve security.
Google is working hard to roll out the Linux kernel KVM for Android devices running ARM64.
Introducing KVM support is said to mean revoking third-party code exploiting privileges, which is one of Armv8's very distinct exemption levels.
Additionally, third-party code (like DRM code and encryption) can be run on a virtual machine with the same Android OS.
To manage these virtual machines, Google Chrome OS dedicated VMM for Android (which is used to run Linux applications on Chrome OS).
Google is preparing to release Chrome OS VMM as part of a new APEX software package called Virtualization. At the same time, ARM64 architecture KVM project will be introduced which is suitable for Linux kernel derived from Android.
Google seems to be hoping to run a tiny virtual machine on Android through MicroDroid, and the virtual machine requires minimal components to communicate with the Android host.
This work could be related to Snapdragon 888's new Type 1 hypervisor layer. The company stated that this layer allows data isolation between applications and operating systems on the same device, as well as between isolated operating systems. Switch instantly without affecting performance.
As part of the company's ongoing ARCVM project, this may also be related to Google's expansion of the Chrome OS VMM idea to Android apps.