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QNX Software Development Platform
QNX SDP is a cross-compiling and debugging environment, including an IDE and command-line tools, for building binary images and programs for target boards running QNX Neutrino 7.1.
OS Components & Operations
Boot Optimization Guide
The Boot Optimization Guide describes techniques you can use to reduce the time from your board's initial power on until you have a fully functional QNX system running on the board.
Optimizing the Loading and Launching of the OS
This chapter presents optimization techniques you can apply in the bootup sequence that precedes the boot script.
Optimize your image scan
The IPL normally scans for a valid system image so that it can load that image into RAM.

QNX Momentics IDE User's Guide
This User's Guide describes version 7.1 of the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that's part of the QNX Momentics tool suite.
QNX Software Development Platform
QNX SDP is a cross-compiling and debugging environment, including an IDE and command-line tools, for building binary images and programs for target boards running QNX Neutrino 7.1.
- Quickstart Guide
- OS Components & Operations
  - Adaptive Partitioning User's Guide
  - Boot Optimization Guide
    The Boot Optimization Guide describes techniques you can use to reduce the time from your board's initial power on until you have a fully functional QNX system running on the board.
    - About the System Startup Sequence
      The boot process consists of several tasks, each handled by a specialized component.
    - Optimizing the Loading and Launching of the OS
      This chapter presents optimization techniques you can apply in the bootup sequence that precedes the boot script.
      - Optimize the bootloader
        After developers get the system to boot for the first time, bootloader development is often neglected.
      - Optimize your image scan
        The IPL normally scans for a valid system image so that it can load that image into RAM.
      - Generic techniques to reduce the size of the IFS
        Techniques you can use to reduce the size of an IFS include removing unused executables, implementing symbolic links, and moving selected files to an external filesystem.
      - Reduce the size of the startup program
        Startup is small (roughly 45 KB), so it's difficult to trim much from it.
      - Remove unnecessary debug printing
        Callouts in either the IPL or the startup program handle any debug printing that happens early in the system boot (before the serial driver is loaded).
      - Optimize use of system and secondary disks
        You can reduce boot time by optimizing how you use system and secondary disks.
      - Use compression strategies
        You can either compress the entire IFS or compress individual files in the EFS.
    - Optimizing the Platform Application Stack
      This chapter present optimization techniques you can apply in the bootup sequence at, and after, the boot script.
    - Measuring Boot Times
      Before applying any of the techniques described here, always remember to get a stable baseline measurement of system boot speed.
    - Optimizing Screen Startup Times
      This chapter describes strategies and techniques that you can use to reduce the time between when you power on and when Screen is ready on your system.
  - Building Embedded Systems
    The Building Embedded Systems guide is intended for developers who are developing or building BSPs for QNX Neutrino RTOS embedded systems.
  - Core Networking Stack User's Guide
    This guide introduces you to the QNX Neutrino Core Networking stack and its manager, io-pkt.
  - Customizing a BSP
    While QNX provides Board Support Packages (BSPs) for many common platforms and their individual variants, in some cases, you need a BSP for a board that QNX does not provide. If this is the case, you can modify a QNX BSP or develop your own.
  - Device Publishers Developer's Guide
  - High Availability Framework Developer's Guide
  - High-Performance Networking Stack (io-sock) User's Guide
    This guide contains instructions for implementing and using the QNX Neutrino High-Performance Networking Stack and its manager, io-sock.
  - Instant Device Activation
  - Migrating to QNX SDP 7.1
  - PCI Server User's Guide
  - Persistent Publish/Subscribe Developer's Guide
  - Platform-independent Publish/Subscribe Developer's Guide
    This guide is intended for application developers who want to use the Platform-independent Publish Subscribe (PiPS) framework to exchange information with other applications. First, the overall PiPS design and data-exchange model are explained. Then, tutorials on using PiPS are given. These tutorials cover key tasks such as selecting a publish-subscribe provider to use and writing plugins that read and write custom data types.
  - QDB Developer's Guide
  - QNX Helpers Developer's Guide
    These libraries provide QNX helpers, including helpers that assist with logging, string conversion, and number and type sizes.
  - SMMUMAN User's Guide
  - System Analysis Toolkit (SAT) User's Guide
  - System Architecture
    The System Architecture guide accompanies the QNX Neutrino RTOS and is intended for both application developers and end-users.
  - Technotes
  - User's Guide
    The QNX Neutrino User's Guide is intended for all users of a QNX Neutrino RTOS system, from system administrators to end users.
- Audio & Graphics API
- Multimedia
- Networking Middleware
- Programming
- Sensor Framework
- System Security Guide
  The QNX System Security Guide is intended for both system integrators who are responsible for the security of a QNX Neutrino RTOS system and developers who want to create a QNX Neutrino resource manager free from vulnerabilities.
- Utilities & Libraries
QNX Hypervisor
The QNX Hypervisor allows you to run multiple OSs on a target system so you can separate critical and non-critical functions, support a wide variety of applications, and reduce hardware costs.
QNX Software in the Cloud
QNX Software in the Cloud enables developers to use the QNX software in Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure (Azure).
QNX Advanced Virtualization Frameworks User's Guide
This User's Guide is aimed at all systems integrators and developers who want to design and build embedded systems using the QNX Advanced Virtualization Frameworks.
Typographical Conventions, Support, and Licensing
This section describes the typographical conventions used throughout the documentation and explains how to obtain technical support.

Optimize your image scan

The IPL normally scans for a valid system image so that it can load that image into RAM.

To reduce scan time, you can modify your IPL to use the the optimized image_*() functions:

image_scan_2()
image_setup_2()
image_start_2()

These functions take less time to execute than the standard functions because they assume a single bootable image, and they allow you to skip the image validation (see the image_scan(), image_scan_2() and the other image_*() functions in the Building Embedded Systems API Library chapter).

Page updated: March 12, 2026