Zinc – Rust’s safety features applied to embedded development

Re:Zinc – Rust’s safety features applied to embedded develop... by eric_bullington on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @06:52AM (#8035720)

A came upon this the other day, and was so impressed that I'm about to drop $60 on an lpc1768, which is the primary MCU they are using at the beta stage (they plan to expand to others once the API is solidified).

They also have used an stm32f4, which I do have at the moment, but support for it seems to have dwindled over the past few months.

But I really like the safe way they are developing the API. Even the hardware configuration is done as a safe DSL. Very impressive.

This project looks like a great foundation for a realtime OS in Rust I've been itching to try my hand at.

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Re:Zinc – Rust’s safety features applied to embedded develop... by omgtehlion on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @09:07AM (#8036165)

> I'm about to drop $60 on an lpc1768

I usually buy them at ~$3 a piece...

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Re:Zinc – Rust’s safety features applied to embedded develop... by eric_bullington on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @09:35AM (#8036291)

Yeah, I should have specified the eval board, which includes peripherals. This Zinc project already has support for several of the peripherals, including a few TFT drivers, which I want to be able to try out.

I don't always buy eval boards -- if a chip comes in a DIP package, I've just breadboarded it in the past. As a hobbyist, I haven't yet tried to build a breakout board for any SMT-mounted chips, but it's on my todo list.

The one I'm looking at (by RioRand) is not a bad deal, since it actually includes a 2.8 inch TFT on the board as well as Ethernet interface. But I did consider just buying the chip and breadboarding it. I may still do that and buy the LCD separately.

$60 would indeed be expensive for the chip alone.

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Re:Zinc – Rust’s safety features applied to embedded develop... by omgtehlion on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @10:00AM (#8036441)

BTW, you cand find cheaper boards or with more peripherals from China, just check out eBay or aliexpress

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Re:Zinc – Rust’s safety features applied to embedded develop... by eric_bullington on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @10:10AM (#8036507)

Yeah, I know I can probably get the eval board a bit cheaper -- I've bought chips from China on ebay and frequently look at TFT LCD displays on aliexpress while dreaming of a commercial product I'd love to do some day.

But in this case, I don't want to wait 2-4 weeks for delivery. The RioRand will be here in 2 days since it's on Amazon Prime.

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Re:Zinc – Rust’s safety features applied to embedded develop... by bluefinity on Tuesday July 15, 2014 @09:15AM (#8036199)

He means the demo board: http://www.nxp.com/demoboard/OM11043.html

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