Using Rust for kernel development

Posted Sep 28, 2021 16:40 UTC (Tue) by pbonzini (subscriber, #60935)
In reply to: Using Rust for kernel development by k3ninho
Parent article: Using Rust for kernel development

> It might be unfair to say that the Kernel memory model is x86, but there's a heavy overlap on the assumptions Linus Torvalds made 30 years ago.

I think that's quite incorrect since:

* any x86-based memory model would have serious problem on weakly-ordered architectures, and also would have serious problems with optimizations that do not respect the TSO (total store ordering) model that x86 uses.

* I might be wrong on this, but the first architecture for which Linux supported SMP was either SPARC or Alpha, almost certainly not x86

Right now, the Rust memory model _is_ the C/C++ model since it just reuses the same backend code.

Using Rust for kernel development

Posted Sep 28, 2021 17:24 UTC (Tue) by PaulMcKenney (✭ supporter ✭, #9624) [Link]

And that reuse of the backend code is the challenge!

At the informal meeting called out in the article, I committed to write a blog series on the specific topics that I am concerned about. As Dan Frye was wont to say, "It should be good clean fun." ;-)