QNX 45 years on

A really interesting history of QNX - quite a long read, but I enjoyed the retrospective. Interesting to see that the Canadian government was funding the development of an educational computer starting in 1981 (which shipped in 1984 - based around the 80186, Intel’s family of processors that went into the IBM/PC and onwards). In the UK we had the BBC microcomputer (already shipping in 1981) in schools, using a much less powerful 6502 processsor.

QNX powered the Canadian machine, and since then has created a well-founded reputation for reliability. It is architected around a microkernel, which means that even device-drivers are not in the kernel, so if the network driver crashes, it does not take down the entire machine and can be safely restarted. This is ideal for critical system, when such a rapid recovery is necessary. I have always had a soft spot for QNX, but have never had the opportunity to work directly with it. Still, since it is strong in automotive, I am sure it is only a matter of time!