If you use the QNX Neutrino OS 6.5 for your embedded projects, you owe it to yourself to check out the brand new service pack released by QNX Software Systems.
Service Pack 1 offers a number of enhancements, including:
Optimized memory management for higher performance (improvements are particularly noticeable with the newer ARM Cortex-A8 and A9 processors)
Updated networking stack (io-pkt) for better stability and higher performance
Updates to security protocols, including ALTQ support for packet filtering and IKEv2 for setting up security associations
Improvements to file systems for greater robustness and efficiency
Updates to the USB stack, including better stack performance and stability, as well as support for the new USB classes CDC-ECM, CDC-ACM, and CDC-NCM
Got three minutes? Because I'd like you to watch a short video.
Last week, on the QNX auto blog, I introduced the new QNX reference vehicle, a specially modified Jeep Wrangler. Today, I'd like you to see what went into the making of the Jeep.
A project like this takes a multi-disciplinary team. You need people with skills in industrial design, user-interface design, HTML5, OpenGL graphics, wireless networking, device drivers... the list goes on. Being a strong team player doesn't hurt, either. Nor, for that matter, does being handy with a screwdriver.
But don't take my word for it; check out the vid and see for yourself:
A word before I go: A couple of weeks ago, some colleagues and I stopped by to take some photos of the Jeep. The team members on deck were incredibly helpful, and I'd like to thank them for all their support. And as for the team as a whole, kudos for a job well done!
If you aren't at BlackBerry World this week, you're missing out. For starters, you won't get to see what, in my biased opinion, is the world's coolest car: the QNX-powered and very connected Porsche 911.
But not all is lost. You can still watch this video from Sydney Myers of PhoneDog.com, who caught with up with Mike Shane of QNX for a tour of the car's features — from instant smartphone pairing and off-board navigation to handsfree calling with HD stereo. Check it out:
My favorite part? When the text overlay on the video shouts out "The audio quality was REALLY good." Got that right.
And did I mention? Mike is one of the super-talented people who built the concept car. He's a keeper.
You've seen the finished product in all its infotainment glory. Now look at what went into making the concept car that took home a Best of CES award:
And in case you haven't seen the finished product, check out this video from CNET's Antuan Goodwind. It touches on all of the car's salient features, including one-touch smartphone pairing, backseat entertainment, video streaming, rich app support, ultra HD voice technology, and, last but not least, the reconfigurable digital instrument cluster:
PlayBook OS 2.0 supports a lot of cool features, including a unified inbox, social media integration, and thousands of new apps. Not to be outdone, the team responsible for the PlayBook's browser have also upped the ante. In fact, the browser for OS 2.0 has become the top scoring tablet browser on html5test.com.
The PlayBook browser achieves a score of 354. The closest competitor, Firefox Mobile 10, comes in at 315.
To learn more about the HTML5 test and how scores are calculated, click here.
A QNX-based patient-monitoring
demo, demonstrated this week
at Embedded World
This just in: QNX issued two announcements today, one focused on helping developers build wireless connectivity into embedded devices, the other focused on helping medical device manufacturers build products that must pass regulatory approval.
Wireless solutions — QNX has struck up preferred partnerships with LS Research and Silex Technology to develop pre-validated solutions based on ARM-based connectivity modules. Initial implementations will include the LS Research COM6L-BLE wireless evaluation module, which uses TI WL1271L silicon, and Silex wireless modules, which use the Qualcomm Atheros AR6003 Wi-Fi chip. QNX will provide first-line technical support to help customers speed up product design and commercialization. Read the press release.
OS for medical devices — QNX has also announced the upcoming QNX Neutrino Realtime Operating System for medical devices, which will comply with the IEC 62304 medical device standard for software life cycle processes. To further help medical-device manufacturers, QNX has introduced on-site audits, proven-in-use data, training courses on designing dependable systems, and assistance to meet compliancy requirements. Read the press release.
Here's another opportunity to see the Porsche 911 Carrera concept car in action. This time, it's from the floor of Mobile World Congress, where Derek Kuhn, QNX's VP of marketing, takes us on a tour of the car's coolest features.
Highlights include one-touch phone pairing, BlackBerry PlayBook integration, distributed media playback, high-def handsfree calls, and a dynamically reconfigurable digital instrument cluster. Roll the tape...
I've already shared some videos of the new QNX concept car, which made its debut last week at 2012 CES. Here's another video of the car, from the Inside BlackBerry team, that is worth a watch.
Among other things, the video shows how the car can quickly pair with a Bluetooth phone, via NFC. It also shows how the head unit can seamlessly control the backseat tablets. Check it out:
This morning at CES, CrackBerry.com met up with QNX's Andrew Poliak for a walkthrough of the new OnStar RemoteLink app for the BlackBerry PlayBook.
If you aren't familiar with RemoteLink, it provides a very cool and powerful connection to OnStar-equipped vehicles. From the convenience of your tablet or phone, you can access gas mileage, tire pressure, and other information in real time; you can even remotely start your vehicle and unlock its doors.
Cooler yet, the new version running on the PlayBook boasts a user interface built entirely in HTML5. But enough blather from me. Roll the tape...
Did you know? QNX is the core OS for the PlayBook, but it's also the OS for OnStar and OnStar FMW.
This just in: SWSA, a leading electronics supplier to the Australian automotive industry, and NNG, the developer of the award-winning iGO navigation software, have created a QNX-based navigation system for Ford Australia. The new system has been deployed in Ford Territory SUVs since June of this year.
To reduce driver distraction, the system offers a simplified user interface and feature set. And, to provide accurate route guidance, the system uses data from an internal gyroscope and an external traffic message channel, as well as standard GPS signals. Taking the conditions of local roads into account, the software provides a variety of alerts and speed-camera warnings; it also offers route guidance in Australian English.
The navigation system is based on the iGO My way Engine, which runs in millions of navigation devices worldwide. To read NNG's press release, click here.
SWSA's new nav system for the Ford Territory is based on the Freescale
i.MX31L processor, QNX Neutrino RTOS, and iGO My way Engine.
QNX medical demo equipped
with a Qt-based user interface
(see video, below)
This just in: Digia and QNX Software Systems have announced that Digia will provide developers who target the QNX Neutrino RTOS with licensing, support, and services for the Qt Commercial development framework. This is welcome news for anyone who wants to use Qt and the QNX Neutrino RTOS in a commercial device or application.
If you're new to Qt, it's a popular framework for writing applications and graphical user interfaces. More to the point, it's a cross-platform framework: You can write your applications once and deploy them across multiple desktop and embedded operating systems, without having to rewrite your source code.
This "write once, deploy across" feature helps explain why a number of QNX customers — particularly those in the medical industry — have been asking for commercial Qt support. In fact, both Qt and QNX Neutrino have a proven history in FDA-approved devices. It's no surprise, then, that the QNX concept team used Qt to build the user interface for their medical device demo, pictured above.
To get a feel for how the concept team integrated the Qt UI with QNX Neutrino, check out the whitepaper, "Persistent Publish/Subscribe Messaging in Medical Devices". And to see the Qt-equipped medical demo in action, check out this video filmed at the Embedded World Conference in Nuremburg. Among other things, the video showcases some nifty BlackBerry PlayBook integration.
You may not know it, but the QNX OS powers a variety of digital instrument clusters, in vehicles such as the Jaguar XJ and the Land Rover Range Rover. To create these clusters, automotive designers need graphics silicon that can pack a lot of performance, simplify system design, and keep costs down. Not an easy combination.
To address these requirements, Toshiba Electronics Europe has just launched Capricorn-H, a display controller for instrument clusters and other in-car displays.
Equipped with an ARM Cortex-A9 multi-core processor, Capricorn-H is a compact, integrated device that incorporates all of the functions and peripherals needed to control TFT panels and to display high-quality 2D/3D graphics. To reduce costs, the controller features a ‘Magic Square’ algorithm for delivering 24-bit performance from lower-cost 18-bit displays. And to simplify the display of virtual speedometers and tachometers, the controller uses a 2D graphics engine with high-performance rotation, transformation, and scaling functions.
Key features:
Dual output, five-plane display controller
3D and 2D graphics engines
Dual programmable shader pipeline architecture
Support for displays up to 12.3"
2MB embedded SRAM
3-channel, full CAN bus transceiver
MOST (Media Oriented Systems Transport) Media-LB interface
I2C, I2S, and USB interfaces
If you're a QNX developer and want to test-drive Capricorn-H, you're in luck: QNX has posted a board support package (BSP) on Foundry27, the QNX community portal. To download the BSP, click here.
For more information on the Capricorn-H, read the press release.
You know, I'm starting to warm up to the idea of firmware updates. Case in point: A few years ago, I bought a portable photo viewer equipped with an 80G hard drive. Just a few days ago, I downloaded a firmware update for the viewer and discovered that, in addition to adding features, the new firmware boosted performance.
My PlayBook is another example of a device that, through updates, keeps getting better. Ditto my digital camera. Even camera lenses these days benefit from firmware updates.
Mind you, firmware updates aren't just for consumer products. They're also making headway into more "industrial strength" applications, such as the QNX-based QLn mobile label printer from Zebra Technologies. Using this device, retail stores and healthcare organizations print just about every kind of label you can imagine: price labels, mark-down labels, sell-by labels, shelf-edge labels, specimen labels, pharmacy labels... you name it.
In applications like this, firmware updates aren't just cool or convenient; they also make business sense. For instance, they can reduce downtime by eliminating the need to send the device away for servicing. And they can increase return on investment by extending the working life of a device.
Earlier today, QNX announced that the QNX Neutrino RTOS will power Zebra's portfolio of printers, including the QLn. According to Victor Salmons at Zebra, "QNX has given us a proven platform that allows us to upgrade our printers easily in the field, and that gives us the reliability, scalability, and performance we require, given the demanding work environments our products are used in.”
To read the press release, click here. To learn more about the QLn printer, click here.
This just in: RIM has revealed that the QNX-powered BlackBerry PlayBook has received FIPS 140-2 certification, making it the first tablet certified for deployment within U.S. federal government agencies.
According to the press release, the PlayBook is the only tablet to achieve FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) certification from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which is required under the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA).
Yes, I know, that's a lot of acronyms. But cool news, nonetheless!
This just in: Government Computer News has announced that the QNX-powered BlackBerry PlayBook won the Best of Show award at the 2011 FOSE Conference and Exposition, an event dedicated to the government IT market.
The PlayBook also won in the handheld devices category.
According to the article, the panel of judges picked the PlayBook for its user interface, security, enterprise features, and government-friendly focus.
A few months ago, the QNX concept development team pimped out a stock Corvette with a multimedia head unit and a digital instrument cluster based on the QNX CAR Application Platform. Now, QNX has always claimed that automakers can easily re-skin the platform with their own look-and-feel. But how easy is it, really?
To answer that question, we created the 30-day UI challenge. In a nutshell, we gave Lixar, a mobile UI company, a month to create new skins for the Corvette's head unit.
But here's the thing: Lixar didn't have any experience using the QNX OS. Nor did they have any experience in the automotive market. If a small team at Lixar could pull this off, the argument went, so could any automotive customer with good UI developers on hand.
I've already posted several articles on this project and received lots of great feedback. One reader even drew cool mockups (see here and here) to show how he would redesign the UI!
Keep in mind, however, that we didn't ask Lixar to re-think the UI, but rather, to re-skin it — to give it a fresh look that captures the spirit of the Corvette. This is exactly the kind of thing an automaker would often want to do: Take an existing UI and tune it to match the brand image of multiple vehicle models. Re-use rather than re-invent.
So without further ado, here are some before and after screenshots of the head unit. I've had to shrink the screenshots to fit the layout of my blog, so they aren't quite as sharp and as smooth as the originals. A fair representation, nonetheless:
Main menu, before...
Main menu, after:
HVAC controls, before...
HVAC controls, after:
MP3 player, before...
MP3 player, after:
I don't know about you, but to me, the new skins seem punchier and easier to navigate, visually speaking. That said, you be the judge.
Before I go, here's the "making of" video filmed to document the project:
Two weeks ago, at Telematics Detroit, TeleNav demonstrated how it can deliver off-board navigation on a head unit based on the QNX CAR Application Platform and a Freescale i.MX51 processor.
Fortunately, our roving video crew was there to capture the action:
Besides providing drivers with turn-by-turn navigation and audio prompts, TeleNav's off-board solution can also deliver real-time information, including up-to-date maps, gas prices, and traffic reports. To learn more about QNX and TeleNav, check out this press release.
Listen up, boys and girls: Our concept for today is cabin pre-conditioning.
Cabin what, you say?
I'll give you a hint: It has something to do with electric vehicles. And last week, at the Freescale Technology Forum, Freescale marketing director Steve Nelson used a BlackBerry PlayBook and the QNX-equipped Corvette (which most definitely isn't electric!) to explain why this concept is important.
Enough teasing. To see the demo, which took place during the conference keynote, click here, click on the keynote video, then jump to the 99:20 mark.
Can the development of automotive HMIs be compressed from years to months... or even weeks? My QNX colleagues wanted to prove it could be done, so they challenged Lixar, a mobile UI developer, to reskin a QNX-powered head unit in 30 days.
I've already covered parts 1 and 2 of this video series (see here and here). Here's the third and final installment:
Or, actually, you can see all three parts in this one convenient clip:
When I was a kid, my dad drove a Plymouth equipped with a push button transmission. You heard that right: To change gears, you simply pressed a button on the dashboard. The feature was especially popular with female drivers, or so commercials of the time would have us believe. (In case you were wondering, the Plymouth design team placed the buttons on the left side of the steering wheel, well away from the push button radio. Wise decision, that.)
The push button transmission wasn't the first attempt to endow a dashboard with a unique user experience. For instance, in the late 1930s, Plymouth introduced a "safety speedometer" that glowed red when you exceeded 60 mph.
But you know what's amazing? It's been 80 years since the debut of the safety speedometer and 65 years since the debut of the push button transmission, yet car makers continue to use the dashboard as a platform for product branding and differentiation. For evidence, consider the many in-dash infotainment systems now available on everything from BMW roadsters to Ford F-150s.
A glimpse of original UI
for the Corvette's
QNX-powered head unit
Which brings us to the Corvette. A few months ago, we pimped out a stock Corvette with a multimedia head unit and digital instrument cluster based on the QNX CAR Application Platform. From the beginning, we've said that car makers could easily customize the platform to make their infotainment system stand out from everyone else's. But how easy is it customize, really?
To answer that question, we created the "30 day" UI challenge. In a nutshell, we gave Lixar, a mobile UI company with no QNX or automotive experience, a month to create completely new skins for the QNX-powered head unit on the Corvette.
So how's the project going? I thought you'd never ask:
Which skin is in?
The above video is the second of a series. Will we see the final skins in the next installment? Pretty sure. But in the meantime, here's a closer look at the draft skins shown in the clip. Clearly, the designers are looking to capture the spirit of the Corvette while offering a clean, easy-to-learn UI.
Personally, I find all of them attractive... still can't decide which I like best. Do you have a favorite?
