Rust core library partly polished for industrial safety spec

Memory-safe Rust code can now be more broadly applied in devices that require electronic system safety, at least as measured by International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards.

The latest update to Ferrocene, an open source Rust compiler toolchain for safety-and mission-critical systems, comes with IEC 61508 (SIL 2) certification for portions of the core library.

"Rust is impractical to run in embedded or safety-critical environments without core, and core can't be certified without rigorous validation using toolchains like Ferrocene," said Florian Gilcher, managing director at Ferrous Systems, in a blog post. "This release reaffirms our commitment to providing modern Rust compilers – and now certified libraries – to meet the needs of the safety-critical world."

Stamping out memory safety bugs has become a priority for those concerned with the security of public and private sector systems. But developing for embedded systems still largely involves the use of C or C++ code, which ...