Neptec's vision system is running QNX's Neutrino RTOS.
QNX(R) Neutrino(R) RTOS is powering the Neptec Laser Camera System (LCS) for NASA's Return to Flight mission. Designed and built by Neptec, a developer of space vision systems, the LCS will play a key role in ensuring the safety of this mission, the first since the Columbia disaster in 2003. This mission is scheduled for takeoff Wednesday, July 13, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The crew of the space shuttle Discovery will use Neptec's LCS to inspect the exterior of the shuttle during the 12-day flight. The LCS, which will be attached to a boom at the end of the shuttle's Canadarm, uses a scanning mechanism to generate three-dimensional maps of the shuttle's exterior surface in real time. During the mission, NASA will use the generated images to identify even the smallest amount of damage to the outside of the spacecraft.
Neptec has also used QNX RTOS technology in earlier devices it developed for NASA, including the QNX-based Advanced Space Vision System (ASVS), which helped guide the Canadarm in previous shuttle missions as well as on the International Space Station." The LCS is a critical element of NASA's Return to Flight mission and we have to be sure it is running on the most reliable operating system available," said Iain Christie, vice president of research and development at Neptec. "Selecting the QNX Neutrino RTOS was an easy decision because we already know that the system can handle the extreme conditions found in space and that it meets our demands for ultra-reliability. We will continue to use QNX technology in all of our real time embedded projects."
Actually, I didn't end up needing it. (That network code is in the link I posted and I haven't bought a USB network adapter yet.)
Apparently during all those disconnects, the box was resuming the download. I ended up disabling the networking from a number of my machines and found that the box disconnected far less. Obviously network traffic greatly effected the amount of packet loss.
After an afternoon of periodic restarting of the download, it's up and running. What a circus...
And you realize that your VoIP phone is in the room across the way and your Tivo is looking for a phone jack. You'll get that 'ah-ha' moment when you try and plug your VoIP box into the wall - with hopes that it won't interfere with your Speakeasy DSL or the telephone company's old wiring, only to find it doesn't work. Then you'll wonder if your secondary coordless handset's base has an external phone jack (for a fax or, in this case, a Tivo), and it won't. So naturally, you run to the store to buy a phone that has one, only to find that there aren't any.
Not to be deterred by this minor set back, you soon realize for another 80 bucks you can buy a phone repeater that runs off your power lines. Dear me; all this to record the Battlestar Gallactica marthon on Wednesday. But VoIP is so cheap; what's another 80 bucks...
At which point you'll soon discover the state of service for modem and fax transmissions over VoIP. Tivo's initial setup uses a telephone connection to update itself and its showtimes. Unfortunately modem packet loss on a VoIP connection causes the Tivo to cancel its updates.
It's frustrating and almost enough to make you quit. As it stands, Tivo appears to require a land-line until you're up and running. Afterwards you can switch to a USB to ethernet (or wireless adapter) to get further updates. Vonage has a,*99 dialing prefix to improve the data transfer and Tivo has,#034 and,#019 dialing prefixes to (apparently) reduce the baud rate. My Packet8 doesn't seem to far too well. I guess I'll just lug it into work and update it there...
Obligitory opening post to start the major flame/anti-flame thread. So the topic is:
Why the hell would slashdot post something that seems pretty darn illegal on the front of their site? If it's not illegal, it's just plain irresponsible. I recognize that the folks who run Slashdot are often characterized as kids with no journalistic integrity, but come on...
I think the more interesting story might be what it's running.
QNX Powers Universal Media Gateway for Next-Generation Digital Video Networks
QNX Software Systems today announced that the QNX® Neutrino® realtime operating system (RTOS) will be shipping as part of the Cisco uMG9850 QAM Module, a new quadrature amplitude modulation product designed to let cable operators use Gigabit Ethernet to deliver video-on-demand and other multimedia services efficiently and cost-effectively to TV set-top receivers.
'Little OS that could' just might
"In a deal signed two years ago, Cisco (csco) chose QNX as its preferred real-time OS vendor as part of Cisco's 'ongoing efforts to increase the reliability and availability of data-voice-video networks.' Since then, not much seems to have materialized from the partnership."
Cisco's HFR is here
"The IOS-XR operating system kernel was acquired from QNX Software Systems, a small Canadian developer of realtime operating system code to companies in the automotive, communications, defense, industrial automation and medical device markets. Cisco already ships QNX operating system code in its uMG9850 QAM digital video module for the Catalyst 4500 Gigabit Ethernet switch."
Cisco Unveils the HFR
" The transition is analagous to Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT - message board) moving from DOS-based operating systems to Windows NT, says analyst Stephen Kamman of CIBC World Markets.
Just as NT did, IOS XR could begin trickling down to lower-level systems, eventually permeating Cisco's entire portfolio, including edge and enterprise boxes. "The question is how quickly they can push that software through the product line," Kamman says."
"The software is based on a kernel licensed from QNX Software Systems, but tailored for the job. 'We have made some pretty substantial modifications to [the QNX code] that are Cisco proprietary,' Volpi says."
Incidently, QNX has been establishing itself in the Automotive sector for quite some time. Here's a few article excepts, etc.
Life-or-death code [Registration Required] Bugs hold danger as cars and hospitals rely more on software
QNX Software Systems Ltd. makes software for both. Bugs might present minor problems, but the Canadian company has found a way to keep devices from crashing completely, said product management director Sachin Lawande.
Should Bill Gates worry? If he's going after high-reliability markets then we will beat him without question, says Mr. Dodge. But let's be realistic here. Technology doesn't always win everywhere and Microsoft has the marketing. People are used to rebooting their PC every day. We've had customers running QNX for 10 to 15 years without rebooting.
Driving the Future Click here to see the Audi A8 L's MultiMedia Interface, powered by QNX
Windows CE (now called Windows Automotive) lost out to QNX Neutrino, a real-time operating system from a company with two decades of experience in life-support systems and nuclear power plantsand few plans to run Audi's life in the future. With Microsoft, confided one Audi manager, You were always thinking they had plans to control more than your dashboard. (Microsoft automotive business unit general manager Bob McKenzie says that Microsoft would like to partner with automakers on more extensive projects in the future.)
Obviously there's more, but that gives you an idea of what's happening.
The Memeitc AI Toolkit is a comprehensive system for designing realistic NPC AI for persistant worlds. It uses a meme metaphor to rationalize the hows and whys of NPC life. The Memetic AI Toolkit provides an artificial life designer with a host of tools, documentation, example code, and a community to help with their projects.
This implementation is written in NWScript and is designed to run on a stand alone server using Bioware's NeverwinterNights game platform. It is distributed as a set of scripts that can be imported into Bioware's toolkit. It does not require a database, or hacks to the original game.
The Ottawa Citizen newspaper just had a profile on QNX as part of their semi-annual high-tech review. It goes into quite a bit of detail about QNX's recent move into the automotive space.
Ottawa Citizen Link: QNX operating system revs up for the road
Actually, all I did is say I'm installing it -really, today, honest engine. What's with all that "Oh My GOD! These GENTOO Kooks Are Out In Force!!" type replies.
Seems like you're being kinda sensitive about the fact that I formatted a windows box, grabbed an ISO and did an install.
Perhaps you should try QNX? Here, it's not Gentoo, but I work for them and would be more than happy if the everyone decide to use QNX for everything. I feel that it's the best RTOS on planet. If you're a professional software developer I really hope you have an opportunity to use it for a commercial project. In fact, here's a URL where you can download it for free: http://get.qnx.com/. Our commercial product, QNX Momentics features the Eclipse IDE with a large number of advance features for embedded developers, including specialize board support platforms.
There. Now you can clearly see the difference between a comment of mine that's not motivated by anything and a comment that's motivated by my interest in spreading a particular type of technology.
That's funny, I'm in the process of installing Gentoo right now. There are a significant number of channels packed with users. Perhaps people should look around and see what's really going on.
I had really hoped that the US Gov was wrong for nabbing a US citizen.
Just out of curiosity, why exactly were you hoping that the US Government was wrong? Assuming you're an American, you're saying you want our government to wrongfully abduct people? Or worse, you're hoping that the government will fail at its efforts to actually investigate and follow through with the very difficult agenda of anti-terroism. (However good or bad of an agenda it is, I would assume you would be hoping it was working.)
More interestingly, QNX is in implementation UNIX and sufficiently implements the required POSIX fuctions to spec. So in that account, QNX is more UNIX than Linux.
Dan Dodge and Gordon Bell, founders of QNX are from the University of Waterloo. In fact the original QNX real time operating system was a class project they took to the street.
I'd like to say first that I'm a blurred line: I designed the user interface for QNX's Realtime Platform as well as consumer appliance devices and demo graphics for a wide range of hardware/software systems. *But* I have a degree in computer science, spend a considerable amount of time coding and using software design/engineering skills on a daily basis.
The side effect is that I'm sitting on a fence - somtimes losing coding abilities by drawing and designing or losing my art abilities if I'm not drawing thousands (literally) of tiny icons all day long.
But it is undeniable that I produce art. In order to get my designs from conception to implementation it requires a great deal of engineering. Of course, I also see art in the patterns of engineering: the movement and abstraction of information married to the form or representation of information and the availability of a context's action.
There is a blurred line - and it is a very valuable skill. As a senior interface designer, I would hirer one interface designer to fifty web designers. Interaction designer, high quality computer art ability and engineering skill is a *highly* sought after trait.
In fact - if you have these skills and you want to be designing something more substantial than a computer game, email me: bbull@qnx.com. I will gladly interview you and challenge you with serious design artwork and engineering challenges.
William Bull
bbull@qnx.com
Senior UI Engineer
QNX Software Systems, Ltd.
Re:'Un-Real Time' Nature of QNX's Web Site
on
Get QNX For Free
·
· Score: 1
The message was recently changed so that we have the option of upping the count of free CD's. I would be rather disappointing to tell you: No, you don't get a CD, sorry. Wouldn't it be better if you just happen to receive one in the mail?
Just trying to keep the options open so we can convince management to give more free stuff away...work with us guys...work with us!:)
Actaully, you'll be able to get GNU tools via seperate packages, disconnected from our base environment. Please don't confuse the GPL and Stallman's views with a proper (legal) distribution of proprietary intellectual property. (Infected code is available, but seperate. We get it.)
Just so there's clarity; this isn't a slightly crippled version.
It'll be the complete development toolset which we use. The only occasion where we may seperate out portions of our OS is where we have royalty (or ownership) considerations. In those cases we'll either allow the owner of the product to bundle the package or we'll sell the component for a nominal fee to cover the royalty cost. (More than likely we'll bundle these into suites of packages which you can buy as a set...but nothing has been officially decided.)
All in all, it's our intent to give the development community at large the ability to use what we use everyday. All of it, nothing sneaky or tricky, our money is made from OEM's and commercial development seats: Not free development.
This is a tentative list. There is increasing hardware compatibility including PCI enumerators for real hardware (plug and pray) detection. We have a new accelerated graphics architecture with a driver development kit and new accelerated drivers. Expect this list to grow - our graphics team has been able to get a large number of high quality drivers prepared for this latest relese.
QNX will be posting a large collection of our code under an open source style license. I don't think we've made a public disclosure about what applications, drivers or system components we're going to opensource, but it's a big step in the right direction...right?:)
QNX's Media Player supports MP3 (MPEG audio 1,2,3), RealAudio,.wav,.iff,.au,.aiff,.voc, and has an API for people to develop their own audio plugins.
eMusic's FreeAmp team are also interested in getting it up and running (possibly before the release).
We are going to opensource the media player. (Although I don't think the Real Audio codec is included in this.)
-William Bull
Re:what's the affect of these "free" distributions
on
Get QNX For Free
·
· Score: 2
QNX makes the majority of its money from large commercial development hosts and royalty fees for people producing QNX boxes (embedded systems.) There is little reason for us not to allow the general computing community to see our software, become more familiar with it, and help us improve the development environment.
We use QNX Neutrino everyday here; all of our products are developed on QNX Photon desktop environments. We read mail, run servers, do programming, debugging and just about all the things a linux person does on their computer. QNX's isn't trying to be a desktop, but it's also not enough for us to just *say* we're scalable. We're doing our best to prove it.
Neutrino uses either the original crypt or the standard BSD crypt.
Some would argue that QNX's original crypt is stronger as their are no duplicate generated strings; a brute crack would have more strings to go through before finding a password. Bear in mind that you cannot gain access to the password file without being root (or through an entirely different exploit). In which case you don't need the decrypting crack because you can just edit the file and delete the password.
So basically the whole argument is moot, but fixed any way you look at it. Shadow passwords, BSD style crypt...make ya happy?:)
Slashdot Mirror
Full Article
Older QNX PR Piece
Actually, I didn't end up needing it. (That network code is in the link I posted and I haven't bought a USB network adapter yet.)
Apparently during all those disconnects, the box was resuming the download. I ended up disabling the networking from a number of my machines and found that the box disconnected far less. Obviously network traffic greatly effected the amount of packet loss.
After an afternoon of periodic restarting of the download, it's up and running. What a circus...
And you realize that your VoIP phone is in the room across the way and your Tivo is looking for a phone jack. You'll get that 'ah-ha' moment when you try and plug your VoIP box into the wall - with hopes that it won't interfere with your Speakeasy DSL or the telephone company's old wiring, only to find it doesn't work. Then you'll wonder if your secondary coordless handset's base has an external phone jack (for a fax or, in this case, a Tivo), and it won't. So naturally, you run to the store to buy a phone that has one, only to find that there aren't any.
Not to be deterred by this minor set back, you soon realize for another 80 bucks you can buy a phone repeater that runs off your power lines. Dear me; all this to record the Battlestar Gallactica marthon on Wednesday. But VoIP is so cheap; what's another 80 bucks...
At which point you'll soon discover the state of service for modem and fax transmissions over VoIP. Tivo's initial setup uses a telephone connection to update itself and its showtimes. Unfortunately modem packet loss on a VoIP connection causes the Tivo to cancel its updates.
It's frustrating and almost enough to make you quit. As it stands, Tivo appears to require a land-line until you're up and running. Afterwards you can switch to a USB to ethernet (or wireless adapter) to get further updates. Vonage has a ,*99 dialing prefix to improve the data transfer and Tivo has ,#034 and ,#019 dialing prefixes to (apparently) reduce the baud rate. My Packet8 doesn't seem to far too well. I guess I'll just lug it into work and update it there...
For more information, here's a useful reference: How to setup a tivo without a phone
Obligitory opening post to start the major flame/anti-flame thread. So the topic is:
Why the hell would slashdot post something that seems pretty darn illegal on the front of their site?
If it's not illegal, it's just plain irresponsible. I recognize that the folks who run Slashdot are often characterized as kids with no journalistic integrity, but come on...
QNX Powers Universal Media Gateway for Next-Generation Digital Video Networks
QNX Software Systems today announced that the QNX® Neutrino® realtime operating system (RTOS) will be shipping as part of the Cisco uMG9850 QAM Module, a new quadrature amplitude modulation product designed to let cable operators use Gigabit Ethernet to deliver video-on-demand and other multimedia services efficiently and cost-effectively to TV set-top receivers.
'Little OS that could' just might
"In a deal signed two years ago, Cisco (csco) chose QNX as its preferred real-time OS vendor as part of Cisco's 'ongoing efforts to increase the reliability and availability of data-voice-video networks.' Since then, not much seems to have materialized from the partnership."
Cisco's HFR is here
"The IOS-XR operating system kernel was acquired from QNX Software Systems, a small Canadian developer of realtime operating system code to companies in the automotive, communications, defense, industrial automation and medical device markets. Cisco already ships QNX operating system code in its uMG9850 QAM digital video module for the Catalyst 4500 Gigabit Ethernet switch."
Cisco Unveils the HFR
" The transition is analagous to Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT - message board) moving from DOS-based operating systems to Windows NT, says analyst Stephen Kamman of CIBC World Markets.
Just as NT did, IOS XR could begin trickling down to lower-level systems, eventually permeating Cisco's entire portfolio, including edge and enterprise boxes. "The question is how quickly they can push that software through the product line," Kamman says."
"The software is based on a kernel licensed from QNX Software Systems, but tailored for the job. 'We have made some pretty substantial modifications to [the QNX code] that are Cisco proprietary,' Volpi says."
[Disclaimer: This is a very happy QNX Employee.]
The link to the Audio's QNX-based UI was a Javascript link, filtered out. It can be found here:
http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/1,3018,a=46185,00.
Incidently, QNX has been establishing itself in the Automotive sector for quite some time. Here's a few article excepts, etc.
Life-or-death code [Registration Required]
Bugs hold danger as cars and hospitals rely more on software
QNX Software Systems Ltd. makes software for both. Bugs might present minor problems, but the Canadian company has found a way to keep devices from crashing completely, said product management director Sachin Lawande.
QNX operating system revs up for the road
Robust brain of smart-vehicle computers is able to repair itself
Should Bill Gates worry? If he's going after high-reliability markets then we will beat him without question, says Mr. Dodge. But let's be realistic here. Technology doesn't always win everywhere and Microsoft has the marketing. People are used to rebooting their PC every day. We've had customers running QNX for 10 to 15 years without rebooting.
Driving the Future
Click here to see the Audi A8 L's MultiMedia Interface, powered by QNX
Windows CE (now called Windows Automotive) lost out to QNX Neutrino, a real-time operating system from a company with two decades of experience in life-support systems and nuclear power plantsand few plans to run Audi's life in the future. With Microsoft, confided one Audi manager, You were always thinking they had plans to control more than your dashboard. (Microsoft automotive business unit general manager Bob McKenzie says that Microsoft would like to partner with automakers on more extensive projects in the future.)
Obviously there's more, but that gives you an idea of what's happening.
The Memeitc AI Toolkit is a comprehensive system for designing realistic NPC AI for persistant worlds. It uses a meme metaphor to rationalize the hows and whys of NPC life. The Memetic AI Toolkit provides an artificial life designer with a host of tools, documentation, example code, and a community to help with their projects.
This implementation is written in NWScript and is designed to run on a stand alone server using Bioware's NeverwinterNights game platform. It is distributed as a set of scripts that can be imported into Bioware's toolkit. It does not require a database, or hacks to the original game.
Links:
Major features include:
-W. Bull
The Ottawa Citizen newspaper just had a profile on QNX as part of their semi-annual high-tech review. It goes into quite a bit of detail about QNX's recent move into the automotive space. Ottawa Citizen Link: QNX operating system revs up for the road
Actually, all I did is say I'm installing it -really, today, honest engine. What's with all that "Oh My GOD! These GENTOO Kooks Are Out In Force!!" type replies.
Seems like you're being kinda sensitive about the fact that I formatted a windows box, grabbed an ISO and did an install.
Perhaps you should try QNX? Here, it's not Gentoo, but I work for them and would be more than happy if the everyone decide to use QNX for everything. I feel that it's the best RTOS on planet. If you're a professional software developer I really hope you have an opportunity to use it for a commercial project. In fact, here's a URL where you can download it for free: http://get.qnx.com/. Our commercial product, QNX Momentics features the Eclipse IDE with a large number of advance features for embedded developers, including specialize board support platforms.
There. Now you can clearly see the difference between a comment of mine that's not motivated by anything and a comment that's motivated by my interest in spreading a particular type of technology.
That's funny, I'm in the process of installing Gentoo right now. There are a significant number of channels packed with users. Perhaps people should look around and see what's really going on.
http://www.gentoo.org
I had really hoped that the US Gov was wrong for nabbing a US citizen.
Just out of curiosity, why exactly were you hoping that the US Government was wrong? Assuming you're an American, you're saying you want our government to wrongfully abduct people? Or worse, you're hoping that the government will fail at its efforts to actually investigate and follow through with the very difficult agenda of anti-terroism. (However good or bad of an agenda it is, I would assume you would be hoping it was working.)More interestingly, QNX is in implementation UNIX and sufficiently implements the required POSIX fuctions to spec. So in that account, QNX is more UNIX than Linux.
Dan Dodge and Gordon Bell, founders of QNX are from the University of Waterloo. In fact the original QNX real time operating system was a class project they took to the street.
-me
I'd like to say first that I'm a blurred line: I designed the user interface for QNX's Realtime Platform as well as consumer appliance devices and demo graphics for a wide range of hardware/software systems. *But* I have a degree in computer science, spend a considerable amount of time coding and using software design/engineering skills on a daily basis.
The side effect is that I'm sitting on a fence - somtimes losing coding abilities by drawing and designing or losing my art abilities if I'm not drawing thousands (literally) of tiny icons all day long.
But it is undeniable that I produce art. In order to get my designs from conception to implementation it requires a great deal of engineering. Of course, I also see art in the patterns of engineering: the movement and abstraction of information married to the form or representation of information and the availability of a context's action.
There is a blurred line - and it is a very valuable skill. As a senior interface designer, I would hirer one interface designer to fifty web designers. Interaction designer, high quality computer art ability and engineering skill is a *highly* sought after trait.
In fact - if you have these skills and you want to be designing something more substantial than a computer game, email me: bbull@qnx.com. I will gladly interview you and challenge you with serious design artwork and engineering challenges.
William Bull
bbull@qnx.com
Senior UI Engineer
QNX Software Systems, Ltd.
QNX is from Canada...:)
-William Bull
The message was recently changed so that we have the option of upping the count of free CD's. I would be rather disappointing to tell you: No, you don't get a CD, sorry. Wouldn't it be better if you just happen to receive one in the mail?
:)
Just trying to keep the options open so we can convince management to give more free stuff away...work with us guys...work with us!
-William Bull
Actaully, you'll be able to get GNU tools via seperate packages, disconnected from our base environment. Please don't confuse the GPL and Stallman's views with a proper (legal) distribution of proprietary intellectual property. (Infected code is available, but seperate. We get it.)
-William Bull
Just so there's clarity; this isn't a slightly crippled version.
It'll be the complete development toolset which we use. The only occasion where we may seperate out portions of our OS is where we have royalty (or ownership) considerations. In those cases we'll either allow the owner of the product to bundle the package or we'll sell the component for a nominal fee to cover the royalty cost. (More than likely we'll bundle these into suites of packages which you can buy as a set...but nothing has been officially decided.)
All in all, it's our intent to give the development community at large the ability to use what we use everyday. All of it, nothing sneaky or tricky, our money is made from OEM's and commercial development seats: Not free development.
-William Bull
This is a tentative list. There is increasing hardware compatibility including PCI enumerators for real hardware (plug and pray) detection. We have a new accelerated graphics architecture with a driver development kit and new accelerated drivers. Expect this list to grow - our graphics team has been able to get a large number of high quality drivers prepared for this latest relese.
-William Bull
QNX will be posting a large collection of our code under an open source style license. I don't think we've made a public disclosure about what applications, drivers or system components we're going to opensource, but it's a big step in the right direction...right? :)
-William Bull
QNX's Media Player supports MP3 (MPEG audio 1,2,3), RealAudio, .wav, .iff, .au, .aiff, .voc, and has an API for people to develop their own audio plugins.
eMusic's FreeAmp team are also interested in getting it up and running (possibly before the release).
We are going to opensource the media player. (Although I don't think the Real Audio codec is included in this.)
-William Bull
QNX makes the majority of its money from large commercial development hosts and royalty fees for people producing QNX boxes (embedded systems.) There is little reason for us not to allow the general computing community to see our software, become more familiar with it, and help us improve the development environment.
We use QNX Neutrino everyday here; all of our products are developed on QNX Photon desktop environments. We read mail, run servers, do programming, debugging and just about all the things a linux person does on their computer. QNX's isn't trying to be a desktop, but it's also not enough for us to just *say* we're scalable. We're doing our best to prove it.
-William Bull
Neutrino uses either the original crypt or the standard BSD crypt.
:)
Some would argue that QNX's original crypt is stronger as their are no duplicate generated strings; a brute crack would have more strings to go through before finding a password. Bear in mind that you cannot gain access to the password file without being root (or through an entirely different exploit). In which case you don't need the decrypting crack because you can just edit the file and delete the password.
So basically the whole argument is moot, but fixed any way you look at it. Shadow passwords, BSD style crypt...make ya happy?