Azure Sphere OS vs QNX Neutrino RTOS

Azure Sphere OS is a custom Linux-based operating system for supported devices, included in the Azure Sphere solution for the MT3620AN. That solution bundles a certified MCU, an Azure Sphere OS license and access to Azure Sphere Security Service; the components are sold together. Ongoing OS updates are included. Listed capabilities include over-the-air updates, fleet provisioning and certificate management. Supported protocols and interfaces are TCP/IP, Wi-Fi, UART, SPI, I2C and GPIO. Deployment is described as hybrid, and the listed platform is web. Azure Sphere is paid and has no free plan. No price is listed for the Azure Sphere solution. The offering combines hardware, operating system licensing and security service access in one package for supported devices, with provisioning and update capabilities for device fleets.

QNX Neutrino RTOS is a real-time operating system for embedded applications, including medical instruments, routers, telematics devices, process-control systems, and air-traffic-control systems. Its microkernel architecture keeps drivers, applications, protocol stacks, and file systems outside the kernel in memory-protected user space. If a component fails, the system can terminate it, reclaim its resources, and restart components without rebooting. Networking technologies include IPv4, IPv6, IPSec, FTP, HTTP, SSH, and Telnet. QNX Momentics is an Eclipse-based development environment with memory-protection diagnostics and system tracing. The RTOS supports multiprocessing, transparent distributed processing, and POSIX-based application portability, and lists support for MIPS, PowerPC, SH-4, ARM, StrongArm, XScale, and x86. QNX Software Center manages downloads of QNX Software Development Platform versions 7.x and 8.x. The product is paid, with runtime licensing options available by contacting QNX sales; there is no free plan, but a 30-day trial is offered for evaluation and exploratory development, not commercial development. QNX describes its Safe Kernel as certified to IEC 61508 Safety Integrity Level 3.