I have a barebones re-implementation of QnX for the 32 bit x86, I don't have time enough to clean it up or port it to the 64 bit model. It blew the doors off the competition back in the day (about 2 decades ago), 200K context switches per second on a 33 MHz 486. Fast enough for real time control of all kinds of hardware and with a seamless path from a self hosting desktop environment to embedded hardware. I never got around to porting 'X' to it, but I did build a rudimentary window manager and some apps (terminal, calculator, some graphic demos to test the blitting software). Best demo was 250 tasks running independent graphics demos in windows without any noticeable lag or stutter. I really liked that project, some of the best code I ever wrote.
Not for my stuff, I do have it (obviously) but it is definitely not worth sharing in the state it is in. Essentially it is a kernel, some userland device drivers and a rudimentary (but functional) network stack cobbled together from various bits and pieces. The toolchain was GCC and djgpp to bootstrap the development until it was capable of self hosting. It would need serious work (several man-months) before it could be opened up.
Even if, it all depends on the terms of the license whether or not it could have been used to fork it or to base a free version of it.
" Access to QNX source code is free, but commercial deployments of QNX Neutrino runtime components still require royalties, and commercial developers will continue to pay for QNX Momentics® development seats. However, noncommercial developers, academic faculty members, and qualified partners will be given access to QNX development tools and runtime products at no charge.
Customer and community members will also have the ability to participate in the QNX development process, similar to projects in the open source world. Through a transparent development process, software designers at QNX will publish development plans, post builds and bug fixes, and provide moderated support to the development process. They will also collaborate with customers and the QNX community, using public forums, wikis, and source code repositories."
Suggests that it was open source more in name than in fact.
I don't know. Frankly I don't give a rats ass if there is or isn't but if there is such a patent it would now be the property of RIM (or whoever gets it after RIM folds).
Message passing pre-dated QnX by a considerable time, they just did a really nice and clean implementation of it.
I'd absolutely support their copyright claims on their code, at the time their implementation was unique but I'd totally object against any patent claims, message passing systems had been used widely by that time, also at the kernel level. QnX may have been the first microkernel on that principle that received wide adoption because of the strength of the implementation.
