Embedded Rust in Production?

(blog.lohr.dev)

205 points michidk | 1 comments | 14 Oct 24 06:06 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source

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nsoonhui ◴[14 Oct 24 09:06 UTC] No.41835659[source]▶

I'm ignorant about Rust, but to me it's just static type language akin to C#. And C# has IOT library which seems to target Rust most usual use case, namely on embedded platform. C# also has memory safety just like Rust.

So why do we need Rust at all? What's the use case for it?

Anything that I'm missing?

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fwip ◴[14 Oct 24 16:20 UTC] No.41839000[source]▶

>>41835659 #

I think the thing you're missing here is that "Internet of Things" usually means machines way beefier than "embedded."

IoT is roughly equivalent to a Raspberry Pi - the thing will usually have an operating system that you're running on top of, and most of your existing knowledge about computers will port over.

Embedded is the chip in a happy meal toy, or your microwave in 1995. There is no "operating system." Your code is the only code running on the machine.

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1. buescher ◴[14 Oct 24 21:08 UTC] No.41842033[source]▶

>>41839000 #

That kind of embedded work, like connect-the-dots pcb layout work, went overseas 15-20 years ago. The typical new embedded project in the US today has minimally a not-particularly-resource-constrained 8-bit processor with gobs of fancy peripherals, something like the PIC Q10 series or the ST equivalent. The median would be a 32-bit ARM Cortex M.

Typical IoT SoCs are a step up from that but it’s not huge. The ESP32 is pretty representative but there are significant other options - see what Amazon supports in FreeRTOS as a starter.

It’s a big leap from small IoT SoCs to SBCs like the Pi.

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