The competition in the tablet PC market is heating up, as many companies are getting ready to release their own version of device to challenge Apple iPad- currently the undisputed king of the tablet market. Research In Motion also joined the race with its new BlackBerry PlayBook. RIM's device will run a new operating system. An article in enterprisemobiletoday.com highlights some important features of the new BlackBerry Tablet OS. Lets take a look:

1. PlayBook Is Based On QNX Neutrino operating system
Although QNX is not popular, the OS has been around in one form or another since 1982. It was acquired by RIM in April when RIM paid $200 million to acquire QNX Software System. QNX has been used in diverse range of systems, including Las Vegas hotel fountains, car "infotainment" systems, military vehicles, air traffic control systems and power stations, claimed Enterprisemobiletoday.

2. The OS will introduce new gesture
BlackBerry Tablet OS will have new touch gestures, which RIM said that will go beyond anything that is possible on an iPad or Android tablet. "There will be new sets of gestures you haven't seen before that open up some pretty exciting possibilities for applications," Dodge said last week.

3. The OS uses a microkernel for reliability
The OS is different from other OS' in market because it's built around a microkernel architecture, reported Enterprisemobiletoday. The drivers, the networking stack and file systems will run outside the kernel in memory protected user space. It will make the operating system more stable. "Reliability, scalability, performance, portability -- they are all a natural product of its microkernel architecture," says Dan Dodge, QNX's co-founder.

4. Gives a secure window to a BlackBerry phone
The OS has been designed keeping in mind that the users should not find any difficulty in connecting the PlayBook to a BlackBerry phone using Bluetooth. RIM said that "this means owners will be able to "use their tablet and smartphone interchangeably without worrying about syncing or duplicating data."

5. Adapt At Multi-tasking

The BlackBerry Tablet OS is capable of carrying out multi-tasking. he PlayBook is powered by dual-core processors such as the 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor and the OS will definitely work faster using the high end processor.

6. Will support older BlackBerry apps
The OS will also support apps built for older BlackBerry devices. "Flexibility is in the very DNA of the BlackBerry Tablet OS. We've designed it to easily support additional runtime frameworks and virtual machines. For instance, you can expect to see a virtual machine that supports BlackBerry 6 Java applications," is how Dodge put it on the BlackBerry developer's blog, quoted by Enterprisemobiletoday.

7. It supports Flash 10.1

Unlike Apple's iOS, the BlackBerry Tablet OS will support Flash 10.1. It will also support HTML5, Java and Adobe Air.

8. The OS Will Support All Kinds Of Games

The OS supports OpenGL for 2D and 3D graphics intensive applications.

9. User interface will be familiar to BlackBerry, Palm users

The interface of the new OS will be familiar to BlackBerry, Palm users because it features a familiar BlackBerry icon view, plus a "card view" of running mobile apps.

10. The OS will be used On Blackberry smartphones In Future

It is expected that RIM will introduce the BlackBerry Tablet OS in its upcoming smartphones.