Hot damn. Looks like BlackBerry and their subsidiary QNX have just launched their own VMM (Virtual Machine Monitor). The QNX Hypervisor is a realtime industry compliant virtual structure than can run other operating systems in a more secure – reliable manor, systems including Linux and Android.
The QNX® Hypervisor is the latest in QNX Software Systems’ portfolio of products for safe and secure computing. It leverages the following technologies and capabilities to provide strong isolation for critical operations while supporting the trend towards hardware consolidation.
The QNX Hypervisor uses patented, market-proven technology developed by QNX Software Systems for distributed device sharing across guest OSs. Other forms of inter-guest communication are handled by shared memory or TCP/IP over virtual Ethernet.
A patent-pending technology from QNX Software Systems enables both virtual machines (guest OSs) to render graphical output to remotely located individual and dedicated external displays.
OTTAWA, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – Feb. 18, 2015) – QNX Software Systems, a subsidiary of BlackBerry Limited, today announced the QNX(R) Hypervisor 1.0, a realtime Type 1 hypervisor for medical devices, industrial automation systems, and automotive applications such as car infotainment systems, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and digital instrument clusters. By using the QNX Hypervisor, embedded system developers can consolidate multiple operating systems onto a single compute platform or system-on-chip (SoC), thereby reducing the cost, size, weight, and power consumption of their products.
The QNX Hypervisor simplifies the certification process for safety-critical systems by allowing developers to keep safety-related and non-safety-related software components fully isolated from each other. Safety-related components can run on one OS while non-safety components run on another OS, which the hypervisor hosts in a separate virtual machine. This technique complements the advanced isolation mechanisms of the QNX Neutrino(R) OS, which prevent software components from corrupting or consuming system resources needed by other components or by the OS itself.
The QNX Hypervisor employs patent-pending technology to reduce development time for consolidated systems. With this technology, multiple operating systems can use a single display controller to render graphical content on two or more displays, such as an automotive digital instrument cluster and infotainment touchscreen. The QNX Hypervisor can also simplify the sharing of other resources, including network connections, file systems, and input/output devices such as the I2C serial bus. Developers are spared the effort of writing custom shared-device drivers that increase testing and certification costs and that typically exhibit lower performance than vendor-supplied device drivers.
The QNX Hypervisor also helps companies preserve their software investments by minimizing the work required to port software from legacy systems to new hardware platforms.
QNX Software Systems’ business is deeply focused on markets that, according to recent data from VDC Research, will significantly increase adoption of hypervisors and other virtualization techniques over the next three years. These markets include automotive, medical, industrial automation, and rail and transport.
The QNX Hypervisor supports the QNX Neutrino OS and other operating systems, including Linux and Android. The QNX Hypervisor complies with standards such as IEC 61508 for industrial safety, ISO 26262 for automotive safety, and IEC 62304 for medical device software.
Designed for fast, predictable performance, the QNX Hypervisor supports time-critical applications for automotive, medical, and industrial devices, including, for example, backup cameras that require extremely short boot times.
Select customers will begin evaluating the QNX Hypervisor 1.0 in April 2015. It is scheduled for general release in Q3 2015.
On Thursday, March 5 at 12:00 p.m. EST, QNX Software Systems will host a webinar that explores virtualization options, hypervisor pros and cons, and how manufacturers can add off-the-shelf software to certified devices while maintaining control of the certification budget. To register for the webinar, visit the QNX Website.
.Regulated and professional users of laptops / desktops in general.
Now going outside North America to those at war with Microsoft or Apple or Google, places like Europe, East Asia, South America and so on, what does this mean for them? Can users have their cake (Windows x) and eat it too (on QNX solutions)? James has some of most intelligent overviews of BlackBerry tech and certainly opened my eyes in past.