BlackBerry QNX Introduces Software-Defined Functional Safety Platform In Collaboration With Intel For Industrial Automation

Joint safety-certified platform offers manufacturers a simplified path to building reliable, safe, and secure industrial automation solutions

BlackBerry Limited , today announced an expansion of its long-standing collaboration with Intel Corporation that will enable manufacturers to design, build and safety-certify their industrial systems and robotic applications for progression towards Industry 5.0.

Industrial automation in safety-critical environments, such as manufacturing and warehouses, is transitioning towards more collaborative applications, where machines work alongside humans in shared workspaces. As these systems evolve, Functional Safety (FuSa) plays a critical component in keeping machinery and personnel safe. Compliance with IEC 61508 ensures that industrial systems and robotic applications meet the standard's safety lifecycle requirements.

"The collaboration between Intel and BlackBerry QNX brings to market a hardware/software platform certified to IEC 61508 SIL 3 to simplify manufacturers' development of and delivery of safe and secure systems," said Grant Courville, SVP Product & Strategy at BlackBerry QNX. "The QNX® OS is known for its security, reliability and real-time performance, and our expanded collaboration with Intel creates a safety-certified platform for industrial systems and robotic applications where safety is non-negotiable."

As technologies become more entwined with society, the need for functional safety increases as humans and machines collaborate in unprecedented ways. This platform helps accelerate the development of safety applications and streamline design architecture, delivering cost and time savings associated with achieving safety accreditation and hardware redundancies.

"Intel has a long history alongside QNX helping customers to build reliable and safe solutions and we're now extending this successful collaboration into the industrial automation sector," said Ricky Watts, Senior Director Manufacturing Solutions at Intel. "Collaboration to ensure safety compliance is baked into core hardware and software components of the foundation layer will make it much easier for manufacturers to achieve certification for industrial innovations, faster and at lower cost."

QNX OS is safety certified to IEC 61508 SIL 3 which enables manufacturers to build their FuSa industrial systems and robotic applications.

To learn how this platform streamlines the design and development of safety-critical systems by offering a unified hardware-software foundation, register to attend the webinar hosted by BlackBerry QNX and Intel on Nov, 12 at 11am ET here (https://www.automate.org/webinars/simplifying-development-of-safety-critical-industrial-and-robotic-systems). ​​​​​