News from IT on October 12th: According to reports by foreign media TweakTown, developers Skylar Taylor - Barrick have recently released an open-source project gbos-vm. This project allows Googlebook OS systems to run on Mac devices that are equipped with Apple Sil token issuance N chips, utilizing virtual machines accelerated by GPU. IT provides the project address (https :// github.com / skylartaylor / gbos-vm).

Public information shows that Googlebook OS is built on the basis of Android and uses Vulkan graphics along with API, while Apple chips rely on Metal. To resolve the compatibility issues between the two, gbos-vm utilizes MoltenVK to convert Vulkan calls into Metal calls, allowing the virtual machine to directly utilize Mac's GPU without having to revert to the software simulation mode where CPU handles the rendering tasks.

In terms of installation, users need to first download the official Dell XPS Googlebook OS recovery image from Google servers, then modify the vendor partition tailored for specific hardware using a script to replace it with the virtual device components provided by the Google Cuttlefish project, and finally boot the system with the help of QEMU.

In terms of hardware, this project requires the use of a Mac equipped with a Apple Sil token issuance chip and at least 16GB of RAM memory, with approximately 60GB of available storage space reserved. In addition, users will also need to install Xcode Command Line Tools, Android SDK, and NDK. Developers are also exploring compatibility solutions for the x86 architecture, with the hope that in the future, the project will be able to support Intel processors Mac.

It should be noted that gbos-vm still has several issues at present, such as the possibility of the Bluetooth function crashing when the virtual machine starts up, a maximum display frame rate limit of 60fps, frequent crashes of background processes related to TPM, and unstable audio and clipboard functions. Additionally, since the project has rebuilt the vendor partition, the virtual machine cannot utilize hardware security components, resulting in a lack of hardware-level protection for encryption keys. Therefore, developers recommend using gbos-vm as a development and experimental environment, rather than as the primary system for daily use.