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Two new (but very old) references to Andromeda surface in AOSP

Last fall, rumors surfaced that Google was working on an Android and Chrome OS “merger” or sorts that would launch on a convertible laptop in late 2017. However, with a pronouncement last month that Google has ‘no plans’ to manufacture laptops, it has been widely assumed that “Andromeda” might never materialize.

Despite this, we have just come across some older references to Andromeda in the AOSP that we don’t think anyone has noticed up to this point. Dated from 2015 and 2016, these entries were for some reason not visible in any of our previous (and ongoing) searches of AOSP for Andromeda terms. Either that or we just missed them somehow.


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Andromeda rumor tidbits: OEMs getting dev kits, notification syncing, devices in late 2017

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It has long been rumored that Google is working on converging Chrome OS and Android, but the rumors suggesting that this idea could soon become reality began picking up more steam in recent months. Andromeda is its codename, a new OS from Google — or at least a branch of an existing one. It’s Google’s internal initiative to bring Android and Chrome OS together into one platform that’s made to work on all of kinds of devices — phones, laptops, convertibles, and tablets.

We’ve been hearing tidbits off and on about Andromeda over the last couple of months from a few different places, including a hodge podge of our own sources and tipsters and other reports. But now we think we’ve heard enough to really start piecing together the bigger picture of what Google has planned for the future of Android…


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Exclusive: Google plans to launch Andromeda on a ‘Nexus’ Huawei tablet, ‘Pixel’ laptop

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We’ve learned from multiple sources that Google plans to launch its forthcoming Andromeda Android/Chrome OS hybrid OS on two devices: a Huawei Nexus tablet and a “convertible laptop”. The latter device was just reported on by Android Police, and we can independently confirm that this device is planned. Our sources say, however, that a Huawei Nexus — yes, a Nexus — is also planned…


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Google is testing its Andromeda Chrome OS/Android hybrid on the HTC-made Nexus 9

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Google has new hardware to debut at its October 4th event, but as we’ve learned recently the most important part of the event may not lie in hardware, but in software. We now know that Google’s long-rumored Android/Chrome OS hybrid operating system is internally called “Andromeda,” but we’ve been doing some digging of our own over the last couple of days to see if we could learn more.

We don’t know if it will ever formally come to the almost two-year-old tablet, but we’ve heard that Google is testing the yet-to-be announced hybrid OS on the HTC-made Nexus 9…


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Long-rumored Android-Chrome OS merge might be mentioned at Google’s October 4 event

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Since October of 2015 and before, we have been hearing of Google‘s plan to merge Android and Chrome OS into a single OS made to would work on phones, tablets, and even computers. With Google’s upcoming October 4 event quickly approaching, we’re now starting to hear that the fabled Android-Chrome OS merge might finally get announced alongside the new Pixel phones…


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Google improving performance of Cloud Platform with Andromeda virtualization stack

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On the Google Cloud Platform blog, Google has announced that it has now publicly released its ‘Andromeda’ virtualization stack to all Platform users. Users on its US central and western European servers should see ‘major’ performance gains automatically. Google is rolling out the same changes to its other zones in the coming months, so all users will benefit from the same efficiency gains.

Andromeda’s goal is to expose the raw performance of the underlying network while simultaneously exposing network function virtualization (NFV). We expose the same in-network processing that enables our internal services to scale while remaining extensible and isolated to end users. This functionality includes distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection, transparent service load balancing, access control lists, and firewalls. We do this all while improving performance, with more enhancements coming.

Hence, Andromeda itself is not a Cloud Platform networking product; rather, it is the basis for delivering Cloud Platform networking services with high performance, availability, isolation, and security. For example, Cloud Platform firewalls, routing, and forwarding rules all leverage the underlying internal Andromeda APIs and infrastructure. Our site presents the details of these and other advanced network capabilities.

Full technical details of the Andromeda changes can be found in the blog post.