utility@quiche.cs.mcgill.ca (Ronald BODKIN) (03/27/90)
I have received about 10 requests for information on QNX, or pointers to such. Here is my reply (I didn't see that mailing it to a scad of users would be any better). To start with, QNX runs on 80*86 boxes (as mentioned elsewhere), I'm not sure whether they plan to expand to others or not. QNX features a modular kernal, and a highly distributed "virtual machine" approach (not quite so much as the Amoeba), with intertask communication primarily accomplished by "messaging". QNX is technically excellent (fast and small) and Quantum software (the creator of QNX) gives great technical support. The OS is moving to a POSIX compatible version this year. As for more theoretical publication on QNX, I asked and apparently there is none yet (this summer the company plans to publish information on a number of topics relating to QNX). On a slightly less academic level, QNX has an article in Dr. Dobbs' June 1988 magazine which ought to give some idea (there have been a few other magazine articles; I don't have the exact data for these) and a book which is a fairly gentle introduction to QNX, more oriented towards DOS people and those desirous of programming, but with a decent conceptual coverage (I can get the address of the publisher if people are interested). Apparently QNX is somewhat like an improvement of the Thoth OS (I have never used Thoth so I can't vouch for this fact). Finally, another possible source for QNX information is Quantum itself: Quantum Software Systems Ltd. 175 Terrence Matthews Crescent Kanata, Ont., Canada, K2M 1W8 I hope this helps those interested. Ron
frank@mnetor.UUCP (Frank Kolnick) (03/28/90)
In article <2642@quiche.cs.mcgill.ca> utility@quiche.cs.mcgill.ca (Ronald BODKIN) writes: >... and a book which is a fairly gentle introduction to QNX, >more oriented towards DOS people and those desirous of programming, but with >a decent conceptual coverage (I can get the address of the publisher if >people are interested). ... Ahem. I'm the author of said book, and my company publishes it. I wouldn't say it is oriented towards DOS people particularly (i.e., it's not written in the form "where in DOS you do this, in QNX you should do this...", partly because the correspondence would be so poor). I prefer to target it towards experienced programmers who 1) don't know QNX and 2) don't know how to design for message-based systems. Of course, really intensive real-time systems design is a topic on its own, and beyond the scope of the book. (Forgive me if that was too commercial.) -- Frank Kolnick, Basis Computer Systems Inc. UUCP: {allegra, linus}!utzoo!mnetor!frank