Reap the zombies, Take 2

Well, boys and girls, it's time to wipe the egg off my face. Last night, I posted an article on the QNX Neutrino RTOS v6.5 and claimed that it introduces a new feature: the ability to reap zombies. In other words, it can kill off "undead" processes that have terminated but still have an entry in the process table.

As it turns out, there is nothing new about this feature. QNX Neutrino can already reap zombies, thank you very much; it now simply does a better job of it in certain situations.

And guess what: the article contained incorrect information about a couple of other new features as well.

Now that I've come clean, let's review what version 6.5 does support:

• symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) on ARM Cortex-A9 processors and Freescale Power e500MC processor cores


• SMP on multi-core processors with up to 32 cores


• faster kernel performance under heavy memory utilization


• higher file system throughput on many platforms, as well as new parameters to fine-tune file system performance


• support for Intel APICs and MSIs, and expanded support for x86 boards from Advantech, Intel, and Kontron


• a new Persistent Publish/Subscribe (PPS) service that helps simplify the design and maintenance of systems that integrate diverse software and hardware components

Besides adding new OS features, QNX Software Systems is also putting the finishing touches on version 6.5 of the QNX Momentics Tool Suite. Enhancements include:

• support for the Eclipse platform 3.5.2, Eclipse CDT 6.0, and GCC 4.4.2


• optimizations to dynamic linking, including lazy linking and GNU hashing

For more information of version 6.5 of the QNX Neutrino RTOS and QNX Momentics Tool Suite, click here. To download an experimental version, click here.

Version 6.5 is slated for release in June 2010.