QNX Software Systems, the company that created the QNX operating system, was founded in 1980 by Dan Dodge and Gordon Bell (both graduates of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada). Initially, the company was called Quantum Software Systems Limited, and the product was called “QUNIX” (“Quantum UNIX”). After a polite letter from AT&T's lawyers (who owned the “UNIX” trademark at the time), the product's name changed to “QNX.” Some time after that, the company's name itself changed to “QNX Software Systems”—in those days, everyone and their dog seemed to have a company called “Quantum” something or other.
The first commercially successful product was simply called “QNX” and ran on 8088 processors. Then, “QNX 2” (QNX version 2) came out in the early 1980s. It's still running in many mission-critical systems to this day. Around 1991, a new operating system, “QNX 4,” was introduced, with enhanced 32-bit operations and POSIX support. In 1995, QNX Neutrino was introduced.