QNX

QNX is a real-time operating system and well known for its microkernel architecture, which provides a modular and scalable design. It is widely used in embedded systems and other mission-critical applications that require reliable and responsive performance.

It is a Unix-like microkernel operating system. It's renowned for its flexibility, scalability, and real-time performance, making it a popular choice in industries such as automotive, industrial automation, and telecommunications. It offers a robust and flexible platform for developing and deploying embedded systems with stringent real-time requirements. Its modular design, standardized interfaces, and efficient resource management capabilities make it an ideal choice for building reliable and scalable embedded applications.

QNX includes a special device driver framework that plays a critical role in its operation. QNX is a component responsible for enabling communication between the operating system and hardware devices. It acts as intermediaries, allowing applications to interact with various hardware peripherals such as network interfaces, storage devices, sensors, and more.

QNX is a highly reliable system that plays a crucial role in industrial automation and communication. Its technical features are designed to meet the rigorous demands of high-performance systems, ensuring seamless operation and integration in various industrial settings. It comes with an array of technical features tailored to meet the demanding requirements of these industries.

Microkernel Architecture

One of the foundational features of QNX is its microkernel architecture. This design separates the core functions of the kernel from other system services such as device drivers, protocol stacks, and file systems, which run in user space. This separation enhances system stability and reliability, as faults in one component do not necessarily affect others. For industrial automation systems, where uptime is critical, this architecture minimizes downtime and ensures continuous operation. By keeping the kernel small and placing most of the operating system services in user space, QNX minimizes the impact of failures in one component on the rest of the system. This enhances system stability and ensures continuous operation in industrial environments.

Real-time Performance

QNX provides millisecond accuracy and fail-proof real-time performance, essential for applications requiring high reliability and timely responses. It offers deterministic real-time performance, meaning it can guarantee that critical tasks will be completed within specified time constraints. In industrial automation, where processes must be precisely synchronized and decisions made in real-time, QNX's ability to deliver consistent and predictable performance ensures that operations run smoothly and efficiently.

POSIX Compliance

QNX is POSIX-compliant, which facilitates portability and code reuse. This compliance ensures that applications developed for other POSIX-compliant systems can be easily ported to QNX with minimal changes. For industries transitioning to QNX or operating in heterogeneous environments, this feature significantly reduces development effort and time-to-market.

Support for Modern AI and ML Frameworks: To accelerate the development of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications in industrial automation, QNX supports popular AI frameworks. This compatibility enables the development of advanced features like digital twins for manufacturing sites, enhancing real-time processing capabilities both on devices and in the cloud.

Comprehensive Communication Protocols

It offers extensive support for various communication standards and protocols critical to industrial automation, including CANOpen, Time Sensitive Networking (TSN), Profinet, EtherCAT, Data Distribution Service (DDS), Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT), Modbus, and OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA). The wide range of supported protocols ensures seamless integration and communication between different industrial devices and systems, facilitating complex automation tasks and data exchange.

Safety Certification

QNX is designed with safety in mind, providing a safety certified RTOS (QNX OS for Safety) that meets the requirements of various functional safety standards such as IEC 61508, ISO 26262, and others. This precertification reduces the time and effort needed for developers to certify their end-systems, enabling a focus on higher-level components and functionalities. For industries where safety is paramount, such as robotics and industrial automation, this feature significantly streamlines the development and certification process.

Networking and Telecoms Support

The networking stack of QNX is pre-integrated and fully, reducing development time and accelerating product deployment. It supports a broad range of natively supported networking protocols based on standard industry implementations, ensuring high-performance carrier-class systems can be built more reliably and at lower cost.

Development Tools and Ecosystem

QNX provides a comprehensive development platform. It supports ARM and x86 platforms with 64-bit support and includes a High-Performance Networking stack to cater to basic-to-complex networking requirements. The availability of an integrated development environment (IDE) and tools, along with a vibrant ecosystem of partners, simplifies the development process and supports innovation in industrial automation.

QNX is used in many sectors and industries because its microkernel architecture and real-time performance make it suitable for high-performance systems:

• Robotics and Industrial Automation

  It is used to optimize the overall performance of robotic systems, increase system throughput, and minimize latency and jitter. It also supports a wide range of robots, including autonomous mobile robots, automated guided vehicles, and collaborative and industrial robot manipulators. It is also used in programmable logic controllers (PLCs), distributed control systems (DCS), and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems for monitoring and controlling industrial processes in manufacturing plants, power plants, refineries, and other industrial facilities.

• Automotive Industry

  It has been widely used in the automotive industry for telematics systems and infotainment and navigation units, with over 200 different car brands and models incorporating QNX software. It powers digital instrument clusters and heads-up displays (HUDs) in vehicles, offering real-time graphics rendering, customizable user interfaces, and integration with vehicle sensors and systems.

Its versatility, reliability, real-time performance, and support for industry standards make it a preferred choice for applications across a wide range of industries, addressing diverse requirements and use cases.

As a leading technology and solution provider in industrial communication, Hilscher offers a range of products and services that enable machines to communicate with each other automatically, quickly and securely. One of the key components of the offering is the netX product family, which includes multiprotocol communication controllers and associated firmware that support various industrial communication protocols, including fieldbus and Industrial Ethernet. Based on this, Hilscher also offers embedded modules and PC cards that significantly reduce the development and integration effort for users.

Hilscher offers a wide range of device drivers for quick integration of their communication interfaces. In addition to a C toolkit, drivers are available for all relevant operating systems such as Windows, Linux, QNX, VxWorks, Intime and RTX.