QNX facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
QNX

The default desktop in QNX 6.4.1
Company / developer	BlackBerry (formerly QNX Software Systems)
OS family	Unix-like
Working state	Current
Source model	Closed source
Initial release	1982; 43 years ago (1982)
Latest stable release	8.0 / December 2023; 1 year ago (2023-12)
Marketing target	Embedded systems
Package manager	Able to use Pkgsrc framework from NetBSD project
Supported platforms	Current: x86-64, ARM32, ARM64 Former: MIPS, PowerPC, SH-4, StrongARM, XScale
Kernel type	RTOS (microkernel)
Userland	POSIX
License	Proprietary

QNX (pronounced "cue-en-ex" or "kew-nix") is a special type of operating system (OS). It is like the brain for many electronic devices. QNX is a Unix-like system, which means it works in a similar way to the Unix operating system. It is also a real-time operating system (RTOS). This means it can do tasks very quickly and reliably, which is important for things that need to react instantly.

QNX is mostly used in embedded systems. These are computer systems built into larger devices, like the computers in cars or medical equipment. The company BlackBerry now owns QNX. It was first created in the early 1980s by a Canadian company called Quantum Software Systems.

As of 2022, QNX is used in many different products. You can find it in cars, medical devices, robots, and even trains.

How QNX Started

QNX began in 1980 with two university students, Gordon Bell and Dan Dodge. They were studying real-time operating systems. They believed there was a need for a new system that could work very fast and reliably. So, they started their own company, Quantum Software Systems.

In 1982, they released the first version of their system, called QUNIX. It ran on the Intel 8088 computer chip. In 1984, they changed the name to QNX. This was to avoid any problems with other companies that might have similar names.

One of the first big uses of QNX was in schools. It became the operating system for the Unisys ICON computer, which was designed for education in Ontario, Canada.

Over time, QNX became known for being very reliable. It was used in many industrial machines. In the late 1980s, the company updated QNX to work better with a standard called POSIX. This new version was called QNX 4.

QNX Gets a New Look

Around this time, a new way to interact with computers was developed. It was a graphical user interface (GUI) called QNX Photon microGUI. This made QNX easier to use with pictures and menus, not just text.

To show how small and powerful QNX was, in the late 1990s, the company made a special demo. It included the QNX 4 OS, a full GUI, a text editor, internet tools, and a web browser. All of this fit on a single 1.44 MB floppy disk!

QNX Neutrino and Beyond

Near the end of the 1990s, the company started working on a completely new version. This new system, called QNX Neutrino, was released in 2001. It was designed to work well with computers that had multiple processors.

In 2004, a company called Harman International Industries bought QNX Software Systems. QNX was already popular in cars for telematics systems, which help with communication and navigation. After Harman bought QNX, it was used in over 200 different car models.

In 2010, Research In Motion (now BlackBerry Limited) bought QNX. After this, QNX became the base for BlackBerry's own tablet computer, the BlackBerry PlayBook. It also became the foundation for the BlackBerry 10 smartphone operating system.

More recently, QNX has continued to be used in cars. For example, Ford Motor Company started using QNX in its cars in 2014. QNX also supports CarPlay, which lets you use your iPhone apps on your car's screen.

In 2017, QNX released SDP 7.0, which could work with newer 64-bit computer systems. The latest version, QNX SDP 8.0, was released in December 2023.

How QNX Works

QNX is special because it uses a microkernel design. Think of an operating system as a team of workers. In a traditional OS, all the workers are in one big room (a monolithic kernel). If one worker has a problem, it can affect everyone.

In QNX, the workers are in many small, separate rooms. Each room is a "Resource Manager." The main part, the microkernel, is very small. It only handles the most basic tasks, like deciding which program gets to use the central processing unit (CPU) and how programs talk to each other.

This design means that if one part of QNX has a problem, it usually doesn't crash the whole system. Also, developers can easily turn off parts of the system they don't need. This makes QNX very flexible and reliable, especially for devices that need to work perfectly all the time.

Programs in QNX talk to each other by sending messages. This is a very fast and efficient way for different parts of the system to communicate. This message-passing system helps QNX respond quickly, which is why it's a good hard real-time system.

QNX can also work as a distributed operating system. This means that different QNX systems on separate devices can talk to each other and share services. It's like they are all part of one big system, even if they are in different places.

QNX Versions Over Time

QNX has been updated many times since it first came out. Here are some of the main versions:

Where QNX is Used

QNX is used in many important places:

• Tablets and Phones: The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and BlackBerry 10 phones used a version of QNX as their main operating system.
• Cars: Many major car companies use QNX in their infotainment systems. These systems control navigation, music, and other features in your car. QNX is also used in ADAS for self-driving features, where safety is very important.
• Other Devices: Because QNX is so reliable, it's used in many other "embedded" devices. This includes medical equipment, industrial robots, and even traffic lights. It can run on many different types of central processing units (CPUs).

Getting a QNX License

QNX is a commercial product, which means you usually have to pay to use it. However, QNX sometimes offers special licenses for students or people who want to use it for non-commercial projects. In January 2024, BlackBerry announced "QNX Everywhere" to make QNX more available to hobbyists.

QNX Community

There are online communities where people who use QNX can share information and get help:

• OpenQNX: This is a community website run independently. Developers from many different industries use it.
• Foundry27: This is a community website set up by the company itself. Developers can register here to get access to the QNX Neutrino source code and tools.

See also

In Spanish: QNX para niños

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