How good is QNX?

[Barbara Chapman]

My colleagues and I have been looking for a way to couple 2 to 6 '386
and '286 AT-bus boxes for neurophysiological applications--one or more
to generate visual or electrical stimuli, another to analyze one kind
of analog waveform, a third to control a large number of devices like
stepping motors and position servos, and a fourth to sequence the
others, do file storage, provide a screen, keyboard, and pointer for
user interaction, and provide a TCP/IP ethernet connection to our main
network, etc. For the whole system of as many processors as are
necessary, a total analog i/o at 100-200 kHz on each of 2-6 channels
must be supported, along with time-stamped digital input (to 10
microsecond resolution) at similar rates.

The literature from Quantum Software about QNX makes it sound like it
was created for our needs. What has been your experience with the
promises and pitfalls of this system? Has anyone compared it to others
(such as LynxOS) that might (perhaps) be able to provide similar
services?

If you e-mail replies to me, I will summarize for the newsgroup if I
hear anything useful.

b...@cca.ucsf.edu or b...@ucsfcca.bitnet or {...}ucbvax!ucsfcgl!ucsfcca!bxc