[Pearl9100]

I am an old UNIX kernel hack (dates back to IBM PC-IX on IBM PC) - my first experience of QNX was back in 1988. A few facts:

- QNX has evolved over 30 years,
- QNX stands for QNX is Not Unix.
- QNX was selected by CISCO when it was developing the CRS-1 (circa. 2004)
- QNX is a real time operating system with guaranteed context switching time, and the first in multicore’s SMP way back in the late 90’s.

Playbook is just the start, the pivotal point for investors to understand is QNX gives RIM a lead, and an edge for the upcoming mobile revolution. PC & notebooks are truly toast.

Anyone can design and build the hardward (HTC, Dell, HP, Japan & Korea Inc, etc.) think without Android, where would these cloners be !? using windows mobile 7? and see your battery dies after 1.5 hours of usage? QNX, technically, trumps every other OS. Apple & IOS will have its response come January. But so will RIM. Think ARM Quad Core Cortex A15 at 2.5 GHz with low power ! I assure you Windows Mobile 7 will not run on it before QNX and IOS.

cant wait for rim to whip out a great os. im so stoked for rim to do well.

[The_Engine]

So this is an all new OS by QNX and has nothing from OS6? so the whole Torch mobile deal was a waste of $$$

Not at all. Torch built the web kit engine that is utilized in BB6 and also in Tablet OS. The QNX acquistion have them a new kernel and core OS but RIM still had to build up from that core with things like the webkit engine. Both compliment each other.

Basically what we are seeing now is the product that RIM started white boarding 2-3 years ago. Since they had the $$ it was smarter for them to go and buy the companies that supplied the intellectual property and talent to deliver.

Very smart IMHO. They may be coming in a bit late, but if the Tablet runs well and gets solid reviews and we are phones in early 2011 with similiar specs and OS then RIM will have leveled the playing field.

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[jeffmvr]

Investors aren't convinced and quite frankly I will be waiting for some reviews before I even think about buying this.

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[mke67]

A nice QNX tutorial..........

HOT! QNX Tablet OS � A Deep Dive Into How It Works! | BerryReview.com

Applications and drivers all reside in their own memory protected address space and use well define message interfaces. Because all of this messaging and segregation then the OS and applications become distributed allowing for efficiency. They also have the concept of multiple microkernels that allow machines to communicate over a network for encrypted transport. It will allow devices to communicate on a whole new level. So it does both multi threaded in the dual core up to 32 core processors or it can do distributed and speak between multiple devices that would not know that they are on different devices. For example, your PlayBook could just speak directly to your BlackBerrys bluetooth or cellular radio or even its GPS.

Advanced memory management is also very useful since the way most OS�s manage memory causes a 20-30 % performance hit especially on ARM processors. That is why QNX changed how applications work with memory pages allowing for larger memory pages from 4 k to 1 m pages adding 10-30 % performance. This will let them use a 1 GHz processor act like a 1.3 Ghz processor. This is baked into the technology and is something that can only be baked in and not added to other platforms easily. RIM is getting another thing competitors cannot easily copy.

The application platform is another space developers are interested in. For example there is Adobe Air and Flash, Java, OpenGL, POSIX, WebKit, and other programming languages. QNX is a message passing operating system so which allows for information transfer between the OS and the application world. They build up a asynchronous abstraction objects that developers understand that will allow for interfaces with things like audio, phone, GPS, network, and more. That way applications can tie into each other in the real time OS using an asynchronous API.

[dkingsf]

change the name of the blackpad and keep it in line with the name blackberry and you have a winner :P (im being serious) blackberry blackpad doesn't roll of the tongue so well.

everyone is going on about how great android is with tablets etc. to me that's just an oversized phone wannabe with apps, esp when you have that chrome OS lurking its head. Either way, its needs to be more focused in becoming a productivity tool - hopefully RIM have the answer for this because the ipad may have started this evolution but it certainly hasn't cemented it with the lack of ports for a start!

QNX OS will be interesting and as has been said by RIM it'll be a good way to begin afresh without affecting their main mobile market - testing the waters you could say. In the long term it could be very beneficial for blackberry mobile users.

Even Google has stated publicly that Android 2.2 (Froyo) is not really a tablet OS, it's focus is on phone functionality.

It's at the bottom of this article/announcement: Samsung Reveals Tablet Launch Details

[drjay868]

Can someone explain exactly what a "real time OS" is versus a non-real time OS? How would that change the way we do things now, or more specifically, how is it changing the way the phone is doing things?

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[samwilli2002]

bring this new OS on! i honestly see some real exciting things happening with this OS and thats just basing it on what i've read about QNX and off of what others have said about it. If this OS is capable of running android apps, then us future blackpad owners (and anyone thinking of getting the storm4???) are in for a treat . Im honestly hoping it surprises me with features and im hoping because its made by QNX (they do create the software used in tanks after all) that they can throw in a couple extra bells and whistles.

and really, how many beamers do you really hear of breaking down due to software? Thats a legit/honest question too....im no car expert but i haven't heard a lot about BMW's failing due to software....correct me if im wrong

Had 4 different BMW's in 8 years and never had a problem with "software". Only being able to keep a set of tires. Best cars I've ever driven and the advanced traction control is unbelievable.

[taylortbb]

Can someone explain exactly what a "real time OS" is versus a non-real time OS? How would that change the way we do things now, or more specifically, how is it changing the way the phone is doing things?

A real-time OS is one that is capable of making time guarantees for the completion of a task. It's not particularly applicable to phones/tablets, but it maybe says something about the robustness of the architecture. A real time OS is important in something like a nuclear power plant. If you need to close the safety locks within 50ms of a value exceeding a certain threshold, QNX can ensure that the task responsible for closing those locks is given high enough priority to get it done in 50ms (possibly to the exclusion of all else on the computer). In Linux you can give a task high priority, but you can't ever be guaranteed it will complete within x number of milliseconds.

The only place I'd really possibly see it as useful in a phone is video or audio decoding. If you decode a video packet too late then the time it contains content for might have already passed, resulting in dropped frames. But the PlayBook has dedicated audio and video hardware, so that doesn't really apply.

There's lots about QNX that makes it really awesome, but the real time part isn't really one of those things. The things that will make a big difference are its high performance and extremely high reliability.

[johnenglish]

QNX is going on a hiring spree.

Current Openings

[mke67]

RIM VP Confirms QNX OS Will Eventually Be On Future BlackBerry Devices ~ BlackBerry Leaks - Blackberry news, software, videos, info, reviews, previews

RIM Opens New OS, What Will PlayBook Mean for BlackBerry OS?

[1812dave]

A real-time OS is one that is capable of making time guarantees for the completion of a task. It's not particularly applicable to phones/tablets, but it maybe says something about the robustness of the architecture. A real time OS is important in something like a nuclear power plant. If you need to close the safety locks within 50ms of a value exceeding a certain threshold, QNX can ensure that the task responsible for closing those locks is given high enough priority to get it done in 50ms (possibly to the exclusion of all else on the computer). In Linux you can give a task high priority, but you can't ever be guaranteed it will complete within x number of milliseconds.

The only place I'd really possibly see it as useful in a phone is video or audio decoding. If you decode a video packet too late then the time it contains content for might have already passed, resulting in dropped frames. But the PlayBook has dedicated audio and video hardware, so that doesn't really apply.

There's lots about QNX that makes it really awesome, but the real time part isn't really one of those things. The things that will make a big difference are its high performance and extremely high reliability.

great explanation. kudos.

[tomtomtom]

Can the existing blackberry be converted to use a QNX o/s instead? Seeing QNX is a leaner OS than Java VM.

[JRSCCivic98]

Had 4 different BMW's in 8 years and never had a problem with "software". Only being able to keep a set of tires. Best cars I've ever driven and the advanced traction control is unbelievable.

If you kept the cars for any good length of time, I'm willing to get you had at least one that had led issues (parts going out) with either the radio or instrument readouts. Notorious problem!!! So, that would be issues with the UI of the car.

[drjay868]

Thanks taylor!

[The_Engine]

Can the existing blackberry be converted to use a QNX o/s instead? Seeing QNX is a leaner OS than Java VM.

I don't think RIM is going to look back. I am sure they could, but it makes more sense to make newer devices more attractive.

And QNX will use JVM as well. Dan Dodge even mentioned it in the keynote. The OS5 kernel and core OS that runs BB5/6 is not JVM. Its an OS. JVM is the application layer where most things occur but I don't think the JVM is managing CPU resources. The QNX OS will just manage the JVM a lot better than the present OS does.

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[FineWolf]

I don't think RIM is going to look back. I am sure they could, but it makes more sense to make newer devices more attractive.

And QNX will use JVM as well. Dan Dodge even mentioned it in the keynote. The OS5 kernel and core OS that runs BB5/6 is not JVM. Its an OS. JVM is the application layer where most things occur but I don't think the JVM is managing CPU resources. The QNX OS will just manage the JVM a lot better than the present OS does.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Yes, QNX OS will include a JVM but all BlackBerry base apps will be native. The JVM will basically be included for backwards compatibility.

In the current OSes (4/5/6), only the kernel is native. All BlackBerry apps and the GUI itself is in Java.

That's not the case with QNX.

[jstarett]

Yes, QNX OS will include a JVM but all BlackBerry base apps will be native. The JVM will basically be included for backwards compatibility.

In the current OSes (4/5/6), only the kernel is native. All BlackBerry apps and the GUI itself is in Java.

That's not the case with QNX.

The way you phrased that... wouldn't JVM be support for legacy devices then and isn't that one of the main reasons why they are switching over to QNX because the BOS is bloated with legacy support?

[lafountain]

So with QNX being what RIM decided to go with on the PlayBook, will QNX soon become the OS on the phones as well?

And now that I read through the whole thread, it would appear that the answer is Yes.

Now how much of a difference will this make on the future phones themselves? Obviously any answer is speculation as we won't know until they are starting to hit the market.

[jstarett]

So with QNX being what RIM decided to go with on the PlayBook, will QNX soon become the OS on the phones as well?

This has been covered but yes it will...we just don't know when

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[Ronindan]

So with QNX being what RIM decided to go with on the PlayBook, will QNX soon become the OS on the phones as well?

And now that I read through the whole thread, it would appear that the answer is Yes.

Now how much of a difference will this make on the future phones themselves? Obviously any answer is speculation as we won't know until they are starting to hit the market.

I makes logical sense for RIM to use QNX OS as the future os for BB. If RIM does so then RIM will surely change the specs of future BB's as well.

[josh05]

Indeed! Implementing the Qnx software on future Bb's will set them on a new pedestal. More support for more impressive specs and and a much more reactive user experience. I can't wait to see :-)

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