Ferrocene 25.11.0: Introducing Certified Rust Core for Safety-Critical Systems

Ferrocene is a Rust compiler toolchain specifically designed for safety- and mission-critical environments.

Ferrous Systems is pleased to announce the release of Ferrocene 25.11.0, the latest update to its qualified Rust toolchain. This release is particularly significant as it introduces the first IEC 61508 (SIL 2) certified subset of the Rust core library. This advancement substantially simplifies the integration of Rust into safety-critical industrial systems.

Teams can now immediately begin developing and deploying certifiable code across multiple architectures, leveraging a fully qualified Rust compiler alongside a certified portion of the core library.

Understanding Ferrocene

Developed as an open-source, downstream Rust distribution, Ferrocene maintains 100% compatibility with the main Rust compiler. This ensures a seamless workflow, allowing developers to transition effortlessly between the toolchain provided by the Rust project and the safety-critical Ferrocene toolchain.

Installation is straightforward, utilizing criticalup or by downloading and unpacking the relevant tarballs. Users can also employ rustup link to enable familiar user experiences, such as cargo +ferrocene build.

Ferrocene offers several operational advantages, including the elimination of license server administration, simplified CI integration, and full offline usability—a critical feature for traveling professionals or secure air-gapped environments.

Ferrocene is TÜV SÜD-qualified for use in safety-related development, adhering to stringent standards such as ISO 26262 (ASIL D), IEC 61508 (SIL 3), and IEC 62304 (Class C). It also supports qualification efforts towards assurance levels up to SIL 4 and DO-178C (DAL C). Furthermore, a subset of the core library distributed with Ferrocene is now certified to IEC 61508 (SIL 2). Ferrous Systems actively seeks partnerships to pursue additional qualifications and certifications.

What's New in Ferrocene 25.11.0

Ferrocene 25.11.0 incorporates changes from Rust versions 1.89 and 1.90. These updates include new explicit inferred const generic arguments, updated lints, cross-compiled doctests, and support for i128 and u128 within extern "C" functions.

A key highlight of this release is the certification of significant parts of the core library to IEC 61508 (SIL 2). Ferrous Systems intends to expand this certified subset over time, with prioritization guided by customer needs. This release reaffirms the company's commitment to delivering modern Rust compilers, and now certified libraries, to the safety-critical world.

Core Library Certification Explained

In collaboration with partners Sonair and Kiteshield, Ferrous Systems has successfully certified a substantial subset of the Rust core library to the IEC 61508 (SIL 2) standard. This certified core library, like Ferrocene itself, is open source.

The core library is foundational to the Rust ecosystem; it underpins most Rust applications. Without it, as demonstrated in #![no_core] code, many of the convenient features that make Rust a highly regarded language are unavailable. With the newly certified core subset, developers gain access to essential types and functions, including Option<T>, Clone, str, pointers, and most primitives such as slices.

Conversations with users consistently highlighted that individually certifying core components posed a significant burden. Ferrous Systems is delighted that the support from Sonair and Kiteshield made it possible to fund this initial core subset certification, making it readily available to all Ferrocene customers. Organizations requiring certification for additional functionality, new standards, or further libraries beyond core are encouraged to contact Ferrous Systems.

Availability and Pricing

Ferrocene empowers users to develop high-assurance software from the outset, without requiring a massive upfront investment. It is available for purchase today at €25 per month or €240 per year per user. This subscription provides access to all supported versions of Ferrocene (current and future), along with basic support.

For purchases, please visit ferrocene.dev. For more detailed information on custom enterprise subscriptions, interested parties should contact the sales team. Prospective users can also schedule a 'Why Ferrocene?' session to discuss specific team requirements with the sales team.