RIM buys QNX, talks in-car infotainment, 'intelligent peripherals'
By Donald Melanson 
posted April 9th 2010 6:16PM
posted April 9th 2010 6:16PM
RIM buying a relatively unknown company for an undisclosed sum may not ordinarily be the most exciting of the developments, but the company's acquisition of Ottawa-based QNX Software Systems does certainly raise some interesting questions, at least some of which RIM is actually answering. According to co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, RIM is buying QNX at least in part to "further integrate and enhance the user experience between smartphones and in-vehicle audio and infotainment systems," adding that the company will also "bring other value to RIM in terms of supporting certain unannounced product plans for intelligent peripherals." Lazaridis didn't get much more specific than that, but the notion of "intelligent peripherals" does offer quite a bit of food for thought, as does QNX's past involvement in projects like the LTE Connected Car. Of course, as with most acquisition announcements, this one isn't a done deal just yet, but RIM and QNX seem confident that it will be closed in 30 to 45 days following regulatory approval.
Haha ... First!!!
@Tehkseven4evee Your first to get down ranked to oblivion
@n0ne
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I would not call QNX a relatively unknown company. They have been in the embedded UNIX business for about 20 years and their microkernel-based design used to be a symbol for robustness.
@vladb38: Totally agree. I used their embedded OS in the early 90s for a project. Solid, reliable stuff then, and it was just getting better. It's unknown to a lot of "user types", I guess, because it's the stuff inside the devices they are using, and you don't see the name. But in programming circles (except maybe Apple stuff), and especially embedded systems programming, QNX was a common name.
QNX = OS in a 1.44mb disk.
of coz engadget writers are too young...
ps: AMIGAOS ftw
@vladb38 : Exactly. Calling them 'unknown' is basically just admitting that you know virtually nothing about the computer industry.
Wow non-apple news really is boring.
@mark29
and apple news are annoying
RIM is competing with Nokia and it's Terminal Mode for mobiles and automotive in-vehicle video and audio and perhaps also with MeeGo and it's desire to expand into that auto systems at the OS level.
Love RIM, the two best phones i ever owned were my 8100 and 8900, and even tho their interface is pretty sleek and sexy its not very interesting like winpho7... If Rim updates their UI they could definitely reach top
I used the QNX floppy disk and was really impressed how tiny and fast the system is.
And it supports multitasking even on systems with only eh 4 MB RAM or something...
If this somehow is related to OS 6, then I approve. If not, well, damn you RIM...
I also wonder why the OS experience of QNX was not mentioned. They have a very strong real-time UNIX based system that has been used in embedded systems for a while. Maybe this will be the shot in the arm that the Blackberry OS is in desperate need of.
Mm. Unix based Blackberry OS...
...cue the rooting and jailbreaking.
RIM. LOL.
Seems to be a great way to join the flow to Unix (like OSX and Android), with the benefit a around (from memory) 20 years experience in the controls / embedded world AND getting things right.
More interesting that when we finally see a product hit the market, the device and it's 20 year old closed operating system will be heralded revolutionary......... Remind you of anything else?
QNX makes a fabulous OS. It is a microkernel so no matter what crashes the system just hums along, including hardware drivers. It's realtime which means no stutters in video or audio regardless of how many things the device is busy doing in the background. It's also very tiny, a plus for any mobile OS. If you think iphone OS or linux can be trimmed down QNX puts them to shame. Just like RIM it's a company built by University of Waterloo grads. One of the great CS schools.
@theluketaylor Except that QNX isn't really any better than anything else for audio or video. RTOS != low latency, it's bounded latency. QNX's kernel tick is 250 Hz. QNX also has shit for hardware support. Honestly, I have no idea why I would use QNX over a PREEMPT_RT Linux kernel for most applications. Nothing that I can see about QNX is high performance. Their in-car system is based on Flash LOL.
@crs RTOS is much better for audio and video under load so long, as you say, the latency is low enough. But once it's low enough you no longer care how low because no matter what you will get your frame decoded. It's not about performance, it's about guaranteed performance. Processors in phones don't have a ton of extra horsepower. If you are calculating a GPS route or downloading a file in the background that could easily lead to skipping audio or dropped video frames. A RTOS makes those problems go away at runtime so long as you consider the bounds at design time.
It's really not a surprise that RIM (a Waterloo startup) is buying up QNX (another Waterloo startup).