Real-time OS and Hypervisor for Industrial Control Systems

A security breach of an industrial control system can cause mayhem and put workers, the public and the environment at risk. As more systems and IIoT devices get connected, cybersecurity vulnerabilities are increasing. A secure system requires at the very least a secure OS, secure over-the-air software updates, a secure supply chain, managed PKI authentication, and FIPS-certified encryption.

The QNX OS 8.0 microkernel architecture reduces the attack surface available to cyber threats, and provides multi-layered protection with system-wide security policies, path trust, fortified functions, access controls, separation and isolation mechanisms, and security tooling. For example, it supports more than 70 options to restrict what a process can do, and root-level access is removed by default.

Reliably available, robust software systems for industrial control systems require a solid foundation. They must run precisely, never crash and ensure that the highest-priority processes run first, and they must be able to recover from faults autonomously. BlackBerry QNX operating systems with their microkernel architecture are in hundreds of millions of systems worldwide, and clients around the globe rely on our safety and security experts.

The QNX microkernel OS architecture provides the temporal and spatial isolation needed to ensure system functional safety. It is the foundation for QNX OS 8.0 and QNX OS for Safety as well as the QNX Hypervisor and the QNX Hypervisor for Safety which enable you to consolidate diverse operating systems on a single SoC while protecting safety-critical systems.

Reusing application and driver code across product lines and lines of business helps scale your software reuse and streamline new product introductions to increase your revenue and market share. Let BlackBerry QNX assume responsibility for time-consuming OS development and maintenance, as well as safety-certification of foundational components, freeing your developers to focus on innovations and features that drive revenue.

You can easily port from Linux^® and other open source projects, including Robot OS (ROS), OpenCV, Boost and Tensor Flow, to the POSIX-compliant QNX development environment and QNX OS 8.0 or QNX OS for Safety, as well as run mixed-criticality systems on the QNX Hypervisor and QNX Hypervisor for Safety.

Virtualization enables system designers to build dependable systems without wasting hardware resources. With an embedded hypervisor you can consolidate multiple guest operating systems running functions of mixed criticality on a single system on a chip (SoC).

With the QNX Hypervisor and QNX Hypervisor for Safety, you can consolidate diverse embedded systems with different reliability and security requirements. You can move unmodified legacy code onto the latest hardware, simply by running it in an appropriately configured hypervisor virtual machine. Just as easily, you can innovate with Android™ and Linux. With guest OSs safely and securely contained in QNX Hypervisor or QNX Hypervisor for Safety virtual machines, you can run the apps and services you need with the OSs you choose.

Safety certification to standards such as IEC 61508 is a huge undertaking–and an almost insurmountable challenge with software of unknown provenance (SOUP) such as Linux. A safety-certified OS or hypervisor can significantly reduce the complexity, cost, risk and duration of your certification processes, and help ensure the success of your project.

BlackBerry QNX solutions are designed with a focus on the safety, security and real-time determinism needed for the next generation of industrial control systems. QNX OS for Safety and QNX Hypervisor for Safety are pre-certified by TÜV Rheinland for use in applications requiring compliance up to IEC 61508 SIL 3, and help to reduce your development and certification costs and timelines.