With the increasing complexity of vehicle systems, many experts see Rust as a long-term alternative to C. Using Rust in a new project may seem straightforward, but integrating it into an existing C-based AUTOSAR Classic stack is a far more practical and realistic scenario.
However, thanks to the interoperability of Rust with C, important components of the AUTOSAR Classic stack such as RTE, BSW and MCAL can still be used. At the same time, new AUTOSAR software components (SWCs) can be developed directly in Rust or existing SWCs can be gradually migrated from C to Rust. This enables a gradual introduction of Rust in automotive software development without completely abandoning proven structures.
Synopsys has actively embraced this trend and successfully validated Rust-based software components (SWCs) on AUTOSAR Classic ECUs. This involved the use of virtual ECUs (vECUs) and software-in-the-loop (SiL) tests with the Synopsys Silver platform. The results of the validation show that
- Greater software security: Rust prevents critical runtime errors as early as the development phase.
- Efficient, hardware-independent tests: SiL enables early and resource-saving validation.
With this successful implementation, Synopsys Silver is one of the first virtualization tools to support Rust-based simulations in automotive development.(oe)
