Infineon MCUs support Rust programming language

Infineon Technologies AG is creating a Rust ecosystem in the embedded sector. It is the first major semiconductor to officially support Rust for its microcontrollers (MCUs), starting with AURIX TC3xx and TRAVEO T2G automotive MCUs. The Rust programming language features built-in support for memory-safe software development, necessary for mission-critical automotive software.

TRAVEO is using the official Rust tool chain and Arm Cortex-M targets, while a dedicated Rust compiler was developed for the AURIX MCUs with tool partner HighTec EDV-Systeme. Support for Infineon’s programmable system-on-chip (PSoC) and AURIX TC4x will follow in the second half of 2023.

(Source: Infineon Technologies AG)

The AURIX TC3xx and TRAVEO T2G MCU families provide integrated hardware functions for functional safety and cybersecurity. Adding support for Rust complements the hardware features on the software side. Peripheral access crates (PACs) for AURIX and TRAVEO are provided for native access to MCU peripherals and are generated with the svd2rust tool, following the same API standard for peripheral access. The PACs are complemented with code examples showing the use of Rust on Infineon microcontrollers and are available in GitHub.

Rust is a new open-source programming language that focuses on safety and concurrency support. It is designed to facilitate the development of safe and secure software via a convenient build system and the “Cargo” package manager. Rust is a high-level general-purpose language emphasizing performance, type safety and concurrency. The language recently became the second high-level language to be supported in the development of the Linux kernel, the first is C.

In addition to the Rust ecosystem, Infineon’s AURIX and TRAVEO MCU families are also extending their support for IEC 61508 hardware and software metrics, including documentation necessary for certification for industrial safety up to SIL-3. The product families address the minimal error rate necessary for industrial control systems, even in harsh environments. The MCU families feature a wide range of integrated hardware functional safety and Infineon’s AUTOSAR Microcontroller Abstraction Layer (MCAL) low level driver software also supports IEC 61508.

Infineon also has built a strong ecosystem of design partners for safety-critical designs up to SIL-4 and offers support for functional-safety certification. The company showcased the AURIX TC3x and TRAVEO T2G microcontrollers, along with other products and solutions for decarbonization and digitalization at Embedded World, March 14-16, Nuremberg, Germany.