Today we're announcing the release of Ferrocene 25.11.0, the latest update to our qualified Rust toolchain.
This release is particularly special to us as it arrives with our first IEC 61508 (SIL 2) certified subset of the Rust core library (core)!
Now, it's even easier to start integrating Rust into your safety-critical industrial systems.
Your team can immediately start shipping certifiable code for multiple architectures using a fully qualified Rust compiler and a significant portion of the core library certified.
What is Ferrocene?
Developed as an open source, downstream Rust distribution, Ferrocene is 100% compatible with the main Rust compiler, allowing you to work seamlessly with both the toolchain distributed by the Rust project and the safety-critical Ferrocene toolchain.
Installation is a breeze: Use criticalup or download the relevant tarballs and unpack them.
Users can even use rustup link to enable familiar UX like cargo +ferrocene build.
Your team won't have to administer a license server, CI integration is a snap, and the toolchain can be used totally offline such as while travelling or in a secure air-gapped environment.
Ferrocene is TÜV SÜD-qualified for use in safety-related development according to ISO 26262 (ASIL D), IEC 61508 (SIL 3), and IEC 62304 (Class C), and supports qualification efforts toward assurance levels SIL 4 and DO-178C (DAL C).
A subset of the core library distributed with Ferrocene is certified to IEC 61508 (SIL 2).
We'd love to tackle other qualifications and certifications alongside partners.
Let us know if that partner can be you!
What is new in Ferrocene 25.11.0
Ferrocene 25.11.0 includes changes from Rust 1.89, and 1.90, such as new explicit inferred const generic arguments, new lints, cross-compiled doctests, and i128 and u128 in extern "C" functions.
In addition, we certified significant parts of core to IEC 61508 (SIL 2). We plan to grow this subset over time, prioritized by customer need.
This release reaffirms our commitment to providing modern Rust compilers—and now certified libraries—to the safety-critical world.
Read the full release notes.
Core certification
Working with our partners, Sonair and Kiteshield, we've certified a significant subset of the core library to the IEC 61508 (SIL 2) standard.
Just like Ferrocene, it's open source.
core is the foundation of the Rust library ecosystem; chances are you're already using it.
In #![no_core] code, many of the nice 'creature comforts' that make Rust our favorite language aren't present.
With the certified core subset, you get access to many of the types and functions that make Rust feel great: Option<T>, Clone, str, pointers, and most primitives, like slices.
In our conversations with users, we confirmed something we already expected: that certifying parts of core was overly burdensome for customers.
We've long wanted to certify core, and we're thrilled that Sonair and Kiteshield were willing to help fund this initial subset and make it available to all Ferrocene customers.
If your project needs additional functionality certified, new certifications added, or even additional libraries certified on top of core, we encourage you to reach out!
Available for purchase today!
With Ferrocene, users can develop high-assurance software from the start, without a massive upfront investment. Ferrocene is available for purchase today for €25/month or €240/year per user, providing access to all supported versions of Ferrocene (current and future), along with basic support.
Go to ferrocene.dev to purchase Ferrocene, or contact sales for more information on custom enterprise subscriptions.
Not sure if Ferrocene has the features you and your team need? You can also schedule a Why Ferrocene? session by reaching out to our sales team.
