{"id":40661,"date":"2021-02-05T16:27:04","date_gmt":"2021-02-05T08:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"\/blog\/?p=40661"},"modified":"2021-02-07T09:30:04","modified_gmt":"2021-02-07T01:30:04","slug":"rust-rt-thread-os-freertos-come-to-the-raspberry-pi-pico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.seeedstudio.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/05\/rust-rt-thread-os-freertos-come-to-the-raspberry-pi-pico\/","title":{"rendered":"Rust, RT-Thread OS & FreeRTOS come to the Raspberry Pi Pico"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Another week brings another piece of exciting news for Raspberry Pi\u2019s brand new Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller unit (MCU)! Following its release in January 2021, the community has been abuzz with trying different programs, tools and platforms with the Pico. Today, we bring you news about support for Rust, RT-Thread OS, and FreeRTOS on the Raspberry Pi!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In case you missed it…<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The Raspberry Pi Pico features the RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+, Raspberry Pi Foundation\u2019s very own silicon, and was announced to support MicroPython and C at launch. Shortly after, Arduino announced their plans to port the Arduino core to the Raspberry Pi Pico and other RP2040 boards. Read more about Arduino support for the Raspberry Pi Pico and the RP2040 in our previous article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rust on Raspberry Pi Pico<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The Rust Programming Language is big in the embedded world. It\u2019s known to be fast and incredibly memory-efficient, which makes it great for microcontrollers where the optimisation of processing capabilities and power consumption are critical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Source: Rust-Lang.org<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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In particular, Rust is widely used for IoT applications and servers because of its tiny resource footprint and reliable performance. It also features a great collection of libraries that helps developers build their applications quickly and easily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Read more about Rust on their official website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rust Code Running on Raspberry Pi Pico!<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Recently, Jonathan Pallant shared about his success to run some simple LED blinking code in Rust on the Raspberry Pi Pico!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The process is fairly complex and experimental at the moment, but I\u2019ll do my best to run it through in simple terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. The RP2040 chip has external QSPI (Quad Serial Peripheral Interface) flash memory.<\/li>
  2. First, the manufacturer pre-programmed internal bootloader reads the first 256 bytes of this external flash and copies it to the top of the SRAM (static RAM).<\/li>
  3. Pallant has used this first 256 bytes as a \u2018second stage bootloader\u2019, which is used to reconfigure the XIP_SSI (Execute in Place Synchronous Serial Interface) to the right values for the external QSPI flash.<\/li>
  4. Finally, the user application is loaded by reading a vector table at the QSPI flash memory address, which points to the remaining contents of the QSPI flash (excluding the second stage bootloader).<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
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    In a nutshell, Pallant\u2019s code has reconfigured the Raspberry Pi Pico to be able to read and execute the user application written in Rust!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    To compile the code, he explains that he had to first build the Rust code with \u201ccargo build -release\u201d, then use the elf2uf2 tool from the pico-sdk<\/a> to create a UF2 file. This UF2 file can then be copied to the ROM bootloader, similar to how we flash MicroPython code<\/a> to the Pico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    If you want to take a look at the specifics, he\u2019s also released his code and documentation<\/a> on GitHub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Rust Development is Underway!<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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    Rust is being developed actively for use on the Raspberry Pi Pico! As of writing, the latest developments include a Peripheral Access Crate (PAC) for the Raspberry Pi Pico<\/a>, which will allow Rust to be used for interfacing with the Pico\u2019s peripheral input output interfaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you want to follow the latest projects and progress, be sure to visit the rp-rs Github<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    The exciting news doesn\u2019t stop there – RT-Thread OS has announced their official support for the Raspberry Pi Pico, now available in the RT-Thread Studio IDE!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    RT-Thread OS on the Raspberry Pi Pico<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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    RT-Thread<\/a> is an open source embedded real-time operating system specialising in IoT purposes. For those unfamiliar, a real-time operating system (or RTOS) is an operating system that serves real-time applications in processing data as it comes in, without buffer delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    RT-Thread has been around since 2006, and has since been strongly supported with community development for more than a decade. The advantages of RT-Thread include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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