Mr. John Wall reports

BLACKBERRY QNX RELEASES ULTRA-SCALABLE, HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTE READY OPERATING SYSTEM TO ADVANCE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS FOR NEXT GENERATION VEHICLES AND IOT SYSTEMS

BlackBerry Ltd. has rolled out early access to its QNX software development platform (SDP) 8.0, to enable automakers and IoT (Internet of things) systems developers to deliver more powerful products at lower costs while maintaining the unparalleled safety, security and reliability standards that QNX technology has long been known for.

Powered by its new next-generation QNX operating system (OS), the company's highest performance, safe and secure embedded OS ever, SDP 8.0 is designed to realize the performance potential of the increasing number of multicore processors that automakers and IoT systems developers are selecting for their products, and is the result of intense R&D (research and development) work utilizing BlackBerry QNX's leading IP (intellectual property) and unique experience in high-performance edge computing.

Providing a step-change in performance while maintaining its competitive differentiator as an inherently safe and secure, POSIX (portable operating system interface)-compliant, real-time microkernel-based OS, the new architecture has shown an impressive one-to-one performance scaling factor as the number of cores increase, unprecedented for a commercial real-time operating system. With the next-generation QNX OS, customers can now fully realize the performance of next-generation processors and reduce their overall costs by maximizing utilization of the available compute resources, a boon for the likes of automakers whose shift toward software-defined vehicles has brought an exponential amount of software-based architecture complexity.

QNX SDP 8.0 lays the foundation for the next-generation BlackBerry QNX product portfolio, including next-generation QNX OS for Safety, QNX Hypervisor and QNX Hypervisor for Safety, allowing developers to reap the benefits of this new technology irrespective of which BlackBerry QNX technology best suits their requirement.

"The automotive industry is redefining software in the vehicle," said John Wall, senior vice-president and head of BlackBerry QNX. "Automotive architectures are transitioning to zonal, central compute and, ultimately, software-defined vehicles. The top to bottom scalability inherent to SDP 8.0, the QNX OS for Safety and the QNX Hypervisor makes this a natural choice for automakers looking for a total car OS."

BlackBerry is working with NVIDIA to integrate the QNX OS microkernel on the next-generation NVIDIA Drive Thor, which delivers 2,000 TFLOPS (teraflops, or trillion floating point operations per second) of performance and consolidates automated driving with AI (artificial intelligence) cockpit on a single centralized platform.

"The combination of our Drive Thor centralized computer and the new QNX OS will serve as a powerful foundation on which OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] can build next-generation automotive systems that offer the highest levels of safety and security," said Ali Kani, vice-president of automotive at NVIDIA. "This represents another major milestone in a nearly 20-year collaboration with BlackBerry QNX that has helped both companies move to the forefront of the automotive industry."

"With more than 300 million vehicles capable of over-the-air software updates expected to be on the road globally by 2032, automakers are clamoring for better tools to help them develop compelling technology features in the software-defined vehicle," said Alex Oyler, a director at SBD Automotive, a leading global automotive technology research and consulting firm. "A secured-by-design operating system that seamlessly integrates with other software components on a high-performance system-on-chip represents the foundation of a safe, secure and seamless experience for drivers. Both automakers and suppliers rely on validated software and well-integrated development tools to help them more efficiently build and maintain differentiating software for their fleets."

The early access release of QNX SDP 8.0 is available now for evaluation and product development. General availability is scheduled for later in 2023.

For more information on BlackBerry QNX products and engineering services for embedded systems, and to request early access to QNX SDP 8.0, please visit the company's website.

About BlackBerry Ltd.

BlackBerry provides intelligent security software and services to enterprises and governments around the world. The company secures more than 500 million end points, including over 215 million vehicles. Based in Waterloo, Ont., the company leverages AI and machine learning to deliver innovative solutions in the areas of cybersecurity, safety and data privacy solutions, and is a leader in the areas of end point management, end point security, encryption and embedded systems. BlackBerry's vision is clear -- to secure a connected future you can trust.