FMP3+TECS/Rust: Memory-Safe Component Framework for Multiprocessor Embedded Systems

Abstract

In recent years, embedded systems have become indispensable across a wide range of domains, including automotive and internet of things (IoT) applications. The increasing scale and complexity of these systems have intensified the demand in industrial development environments for platforms that ensure reliability, maintainability, and efficiency simultaneously. Conventional programming languages, such as C and C++, offer high performance but suffer from serious issues related to memory safety, resulting in bugs and security vulnerabilities. In contrast, Rust enables safe development by enforcing memory safety at compile time through its ownership and borrowing mechanisms, contributing to improved code quality and maintainability in industrial settings. Component-based development (CBD) supports modularization by units of functionality, enhancing reusability and structural clarity, which facilitates the handling of large-scale and complex industrial systems. Modern embedded applications, which require high processing performance and energy efficiency, increasingly adopt multiprocessor architectures to enable parallel execution. This study proposes a Rust-compatible framework that combines the safety features of Rust with the structural advantages of CBD, based on the TOPPERS Embedded Component Systems (TECSs) and the multiprocessor real-time operating system (RTOS) TOPPERS flexible multiprocessor profile 3 (FMP3). The proposed framework facilitates safe and reusable CBD in practice by designing and automatically generating Rust code that represents the TECS component structure and through optimization of exclusive control while maintaining safety. Evaluation of execution time demonstrates minimal overhead from integration with the multiprocessor RTOS, enabling efficient and reliable application development.