Plus Post: Quantum Software Systems Ltd's QNX

Operating Systems Come in Many Flavors But QNX Can Take the Heat

From the May 1993 issue of Byte magazine

I intended to publish this article sooner, but time got away from me. I’ll do better this month.

The Company

Gordon Bell and Dan Dodge met at the University of Waterloo in 1980. They were both taking a class on real-time operating systems where students had to write their own. The two realized the commercial potential of real-time operating systems and decided to start a business. That’s when Quantum Software Systems was born. In 1982, they released the first version of QUNIX. In the late 1980s, they realized that the Portable Operating System Interface (or POSIX) was gaining traction, so they rewrote the system to follow these new specifications.

As the 1990s drew to a close, the company changed its name to QNX Software Systems. In 2004, QNX was purchased by Harman International Industries, which was involved in audio electronics. At the time, QNX was used in a wide variety of cars to run navigation and infotainment systems.