Shanghai, China — August 21, 2025 — QNX, a division of BlackBerry Limited, today officially released QNX® Operating System for Safety 8.0 (hereinafter referred to as “QOS 8.0”). This safety-certified foundational solution is built on the high-performance, next-generation microkernel architecture of QNX® SDP 8.0, simplifying the development and certification of functionally safe and cybersecurity-critical embedded systems across industries such as automotive, industrial manufacturing, robotics, medical devices, and defense.

The core of building complex mission-critical embedded applications

QOS 8.0 is a pre-certified, ready-to-deploy foundational software that directly embeds functional safety and cybersecurity requirements into products, providing developers with a clear roadmap to achieve their functional safety and cybersecurity goals. With this solid foundation, manufacturers can focus their valuable software engineering resources on developing and certifying core components that differentiate their products in the market, while fully trusting that the underlying software they have selected is already optimized for functional safety and cybersecurity.

As embedded systems become increasingly intelligent, interconnected, and software-defined, emerging technologies such as automation systems, edge computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are accelerating industry transformation. In this context, it is essential to execute in real time and strictly adhere to evolving functional safety and cybersecurity standards. These pressures also present challenges for development teams, who must accelerate delivery while ensuring compliance with stringent requirements.

QOS 8.0 is specifically designed to address these challenges. It is a powerful, feature-rich hard real-time operating system tailored to support the most demanding embedded applications. QOS 8.0 is developed in compliance with multiple global functional safety and cybersecurity standards, including ISO 26262 ASIL-D, IEC 61508 SIL3, IEC 62304 Class C, and ISO/SAE 21434, and can operate as a certified “Security Element out of Context (SEooC).” Developers can seamlessly integrate it as a base software component into various functional safety and cybersecurity critical systems, regardless of the final application scenario, thereby simplifying the certification process and reducing time-to-market.

“QOS 8.0 lays a solid foundation for developers to build the next generation of functional safety and cybersecurity critical embedded systems,” said John Wall, QNX Chief Operating Officer and Head of Product Engineering and Services. By choosing QOS 8.0, manufacturers are selecting a software development platform that meets functional safety, cybersecurity, and performance requirements simultaneously. This version fully reflects our commitment to helping customers meet the highest standards of functional safety and cybersecurity—without compromising on performance or time to market. With over four decades of experience in mission-critical systems and more than fifteen years of safety certification expertise, QNX will continue to drive innovation with trusted technology."

In QOS 8.0, the QNX microkernel architecture has been fully upgraded with a future-oriented next-generation design, maximizing chip performance potential to deliver fast, stable, and real-time system performance in critical functional safety and cybersecurity applications.

QOS 8.0 offers the following key capabilities:

A full-featured hard real-time operating system based on QNX SDP 8.0 (QNX Software Development Platform 8.0)

A C/C++ compiler toolchain compliant with ISO 26262 TCL3 and IEC 61508 TL3 certification requirements

Critical functional safety and cybersecurity artifacts to simplify the development and certification of functional safety and cybersecurity systems

Chris Rommel, Executive Vice President of VDC Research, said: “Today, software-defined systems urgently need a development platform that balances functional safety, cybersecurity, and innovation. QOS 8.0 provides engineers with a reliable solution that not only meets the latest functional safety and cybersecurity standards but also accelerates and simplifies their development processes to meet the demands of next-generation embedded systems across complex industries.”

QNX provides robust support for critical applications across various embedded industries and is trusted by leading global OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers, including BMW, Bosch, Continental, Dongfeng Motor, Geely, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Volvo. QNX remains committed to innovation as its driving force and safety as its core principle, continuously leading the development of embedded technology and providing high-performance, easy-to-integrate, reliable software foundations for mission-critical scenarios.