QNX Software Systems Limited, a subsidiary of BlackBerry and a provider of software platforms for connected embedded systems, has launched the latest generation of its QNX Neutrino operating system.
Designed to bring mobile-class user experiences to secure embedded systems, the QNX OS 6.6 offers a wealth of new graphics, UI, multimedia, security, and power management capabilities, enabling developers to create highly differentiated products for markets such as healthcare, heavy machinery, consumer white goods, energy production, industrial automation, automotive telematics, and marine and in-flight entertainment.
“Smartphones and tablets have transformed user expectations. These expectations put enormous pressure on embedded system manufacturers to deliver a mobile-class user experience, and the QNX OS 6.6 enables them to create products that are feature-rich yet easy to use, and connected and secure,” said Grant Courville, director of product management, QNX Software Systems.
To help thwart malicious software, the QNX OS 6.6 introduces several advanced security features, including offline-grained control of system privilege levels, application lifecycle management, enhanced heap, stack, and memory layout protection and file system enhancements.
The company said that these features complement the inherent security strengths of the QNX OS microkernel architecture, which reduces attack surfaces by running all processes, including system services, outside of the kernel in memory-protected user space.
For the ultimate in UI design flexibility, the QNX OS includes a new graphical composition manager that can seamlessly blend apps and components created in HTML5, OpenGL ES, and Qt 5, together with video from connected devices all on the same display, at the same time.
Additionally, to help embedded developers create mobile devices that consume less power, the QNX OS offers several new features that enable the CPU to sleep for extended durations. These include the ability to assign a tolerance value to timers that don’t require realtime precision, and similarly, the ability to assign an acceptable latency value to interrupts that don’t require realtime responses.
The QNX OS 6.6 also supports the new QNX SDK for Apps and Media, which allows developers to create rich user interfaces with web technologies (HTML5, JavaScript, CSS) and to develop and deploy packaged HTML5 apps.
The QNX SDK for Apps and Media also enables developers to build media-rich embedded products that can integrate seamlessly with various smartphones and tablets.[signoff predefined=”Enjoy this?” icon=”icon-users”][/signoff]
