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QNX Acquired by Harman

QNX Acquired by Harman

OTTAWA & WASHINGTON, October 27, 2004 - QNX Software Systems today announced it has accepted an offer of purchase from Harman International Industries, Incorporated (NYSE: HAR). As the newest subsidiary in Harman International?s family of premium brands, including Harman Kardon, JBL, and Becker, QNX will now be well-positioned to accelerate its growth toward becoming the preferred operating system for advanced embedded applications.

Of key value to Harman International is the QNX Neutrino realtime operating system (RTOS), the company?s flagship product. QNX Neutrino is widely held as the world?s most advanced operating system and is ideally suited for the next generation of complex computing devices in many markets. Both QNX and Harman see an expanding role for the RTOS and, within the automotive market in particular, share a vision for establishing QNX Neutrino as the de facto standard for the industry. By bringing QNX under the Harman umbrella, both companies will be able to contribute to this process, speeding the pace of innovation in the industry.

The agreement comes at a time when sophisticated software systems are becoming the cornerstone of a steadily increasing number of integrated devices, ranging from infotainment systems to smart phones to networking gear. Maintaining leadership in operating system technology requires a continued commitment to innovation, strategic partnerships, industry standards, and intensive customer support. With Harman as a parent company, QNX will continue its leadership in all of these critical areas, pushing the industry forward as a whole and ensuring that its entire customer base benefits from its new resources and influence.

Under the terms of the agreement, QNX will operate as a separate division led by its existing management team, including co-founder and CEO Dan Dodge. All of QNX?s offices and operations will stay in place and continue to be dedicated to serving and growing QNX?s target markets, including automotive, networking, medical instrumentation, and industrial control. As is the established practice in other Harman International subsidiaries, QNX will continue to provide advanced software and engineering services to all of its existing customers, including Harman?s competitors.

"My vision for QNX remains steadfast. We will remain the top brand for OS reliability, the proving ground for innovation, and a fiercely customer-centric organization," said Dan Dodge, CEO of QNX. "Together with Harman, we will continue our leadership, setting new standards for performance and reliability that will benefit embedded developers, OEMs, and consumers across all industries."

"With its deep experience in the automotive, networking, medical, and general embedded markets, QNX brings a rich portfolio of technology and expertise to the Harman family, creating new synergies and market opportunities," said Bernard Girod, CEO of Harman International Inc. "We are excited to contribute to QNX?s ongoing growth and success, at a time when the need - and demand - for its operating system technology is accelerating worldwide, from North America to Europe to the Pacific Rim."

About QNX Software Systems With millions of installations worldwide, QNX Software Systems is the global leader in realtime, microkernel operating system technology. Companies like Cisco, DaimlerChrysler, Harris, Panasonic, Siemens, and General Electric rely on QNX technology to build ultra-reliable systems for the networking, automotive, medical, military, and industrial automation markets. Founded in 1980, QNX Software Systems maintains offices throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Visit

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About Harman International Harman International Industries, Incorporated

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is a leading manufacturer of high-quality, high fidelity audio products and electronic systems for the consumer and professional markets. The company?s stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol: HAR.

Editorial Contact Paul Leroux QNX Software Systems

+1 613 591-0931 snipped-for-privacy@qnx.com

QNX and Neutrino are registered trademarks of QNX Software Systems Ltd. in certain jurisdictions. All other trademarks and trade names belong to their respective owners.

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Guy Macon
Reply to
Guy Macon
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What puffery! Inside the walls at QNX, maybe. It might even be best by many objective measures, but "widely held", I don't think so.

Too late. It's called Linux, and it got there neither by being the best nor smallest nor fastest, nor anything else-est. Can you figgur out why?

Nothing against QNX except their puffery. I used to use it before I found Linux.

Reply to
Bryan Hackney

Of course it's puffery. That's what press releases are. Don't expect datasheet-style accuracy written by engineers in something intended for investors and written by marketing.

I don't know about "widely held", but QNX Neutrino is arguably the world?s most advanced operating system. Alas, it isn't a *general purpose* operating system.

QNX or QNX Neutrino?

You used it for what? As a general-purpose operating system or as a real-time operating system? If the latter. which flavor of Embedded Linux did you use?

BTW, you shouldn't quote the entire post you are replying to.

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Guy Macon
Reply to
Guy Macon

Bryan Hackney wrote in news:Gs9gd.10748$ snipped-for-privacy@fe2.texas.rr.com:

You want Linux to deploy your airbag or control your steer-by-wire steering? Good luck, I'll take QNX. For word processing, compiling, or web hosting, Linux is fine.

Reply to
Mark A. Odell

I am not familiar with QNX, but Linux is by no stretch of the imagination an RTOS. There have been moves to run Linux under an elementary RTOS, or to give it a measure of the capabilities of an RTOS.

The requirements of an RTOS and a general purpose OS are not really compatible. For example, the GPOS need not succeed in avoiding indefinite postponement under all circumstances, but the RTOS must absolutely guarantee process service in a specified time quantum. This also means a difference in the means of dealing with deadlock (deadly embrace). A GPOS can afford to let an operator resolve it, the RTOS cannot.

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Chuck F (cbfalconer@yahoo.com) (cbfalconer@worldnet.att.net)
   Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems.
     USE worldnet address!
Reply to
CBFalconer

Can you give several examples of how QNX 6 handles deadlocks (different kinds of)?

Let's leave aside POSIX EDEADLK return code when someone tries to lock the mutext twice.

Thank you, Roman

Reply to
Roman Pavlyuk

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Let's not. :)

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Also see:

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Note: I have no connection to QNX other than having managed a project that used it.

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Guy Macon
Reply to
Guy Macon

Hi CBFalconer,

under all circumstances, but the RTOS must absolutely guarantee process service in a specified time quantum.

That's exactly the point. If an interrupt latency cannot be hard-specified to xx microseconds or even milliseconds it is not an RTOS I would use. With QNX I was quite impressed when it came to this issue, also with the knowledgeable staff up there. I am pretty good in crashing applications under all kinds of OS flavors. I tried my best with our QNX app but it was like kicking an oak tree, it didn't budge a bit and just kept running.

embrace). A GPOS can afford to let an operator resolve it, the RTOS cannot.

Well, an RTOS can. Once. From then on the victim's lawyers might take the lead.

Regards, Joerg

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Reply to
Joerg

Actually, I'll take hardwired logic for airbag control, and raw code on silicon for super real-time problems.

Reply to
Bryan Hackney

I was a little quick on the post. I see that their PR was limited to the RTOS domain. QNX (not Neutrino) used to be POSIX+microkernel+ almost real time. It tried very hard to be POSIX and to support boatloads of hardware, most of which it did OK. Linux has always done much better, minus the real-time component.

Our designs prefer logic machines to accomplish the hard-time stuff, and non-real-time OS to support the higher level functions, and to keep the hardware fed. And of course, where logic is insufficient, we program sans OS, as God intended.

Reply to
Bryan Hackney

Not a bad methodology, unless you have a competitor who is using Forth on a uC -- if that ever happens you won't be able to beat the competition in the areas of time-to-market, system cost, or development cost. Then again, you might have a competitor who is using Windowws CE, in which case he is the one who won't be able to beat yiu in the areas of time-to-market, system cost, or development cost.

Reply to
Guy Macon

postponement under all circumstances, but the RTOS must absolutely guarantee process service in a specified time quantum.

I don't know what you are doing to mung quotations from me, but anything I wrote was limited to 65 char lines. You are converting them into something that far exceeds standards.

--
Chuck F (cbfalconer@yahoo.com) (cbfalconer@worldnet.att.net)
   Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems.
     USE worldnet address!
Reply to
CBFalconer

What's your base for such a statement? I am starting to evaluate it for some designs. What about LynxOS (my other candidate) ?

Regards.

Reply to
Elder Costa

Your use of the phrase "some designs" leads me to believe that you are looking for an embedded OS and possibly a RTOS. If you were talking about a general purpose OS I would expect to see you talking about office suites and support for the latest games on the latest videocards.

Look at

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They aren;t pushing it as something to replace Windows XP or Linux on the desktop, but rather as something to put inside routers and DVD platers.

Now look at

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They are pushing it for avionics, not general purpose use.

If you don't need real-time and your application is to run on a standard desktop PC used by a typical user - general purpose computing - Linux is a better choice IMO.

For real-time embedded applications, QNX and LynxOS are both fine choices.

Reply to
Guy Macon

Hi CBFalconer,

Sorry, sometimes my newsreader (Mozilla) does that and I have no clue why. It happens sporadically and it also mungs my text as well at times. Had tried Netscape before but the problems were much worse. Also, I tried both on very different PCs. Same thing.

BTW, I have it set to 65 characters in the setup menu.

Regards, Joerg

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Reply to
Joerg

Actually, both. :-)

Sorry. My quote induced you to think my question regarded the "general purpose" statement but it was about "the world's most advanced operating system" statement.

They are AFAICT closer to general system than other RTOSes (VxWorks, Integrity etc.) in the sense one can use them as development hosts and even run some desktop like applications on them (Lynx has a compatibilty layer for linux applications - I wonder how well it works.) For applications that involve graphics display of information and data recovery on a networked system (bedside monitors from which one could retrieve patients data for instance) they seem to provide an easier path to final product than some other RTOSes (again VxWors, Integrity etc.) that need third party componentes to perform the same tasks. I wonder how good are their development tools though.

Regards.

Reply to
Elder Costa

here additional 2 articles of the Ottawa Business Journal

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and Ottawa Citizen

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Jutta Steinhoff STEINHOFF Automation & Fieldbus-Systems

Reply to
Jutta Steinhoff

"We get the capital we need now to compete with Microsoft, rather than wait four or five years" -- QNX Chief executive Dan Dodge

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Guy Macon
Reply to
Guy Macon

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If you're going to dream, might as well dream big...

Scott

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Not Really Me

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