Asynchronous Rust on Cortex-M Microcontrollers

In the realm of embedded software, the demand for efficient and responsive applications is ever-increasing. Asynchronous programming, with its ability to handle concurrent tasks effectively, holds immense potential in this domain.

In this article, the author explores the inner workings of Futures, cooperative scheduling, and Async Rust executors, highlighting their significance in optimizing resource utilization. The article also introduces the Rust Embassy project, an innovative framework designed to unlock the power of asynchronous programming on microcontrollers.

The article assumes knowledge of Rust and using Rust on microcontrollers. For readers unfamiliar with Rust, the author suggests reading "The Rust Book" for a good understanding of the language. Additionally, "The Embedded Rust Book" is recommended for those interested in embedded Rust.

The article explains that asynchronous programming allows the execution of a task to be paused if it does not have work to do. This is particularly useful for tasks that are waiting for external events to occur. In a synchronous system, the task would have to wait for the event to occur before it could continue execution. In an asynchronous system, the task can be paused, and another task can be executed until the event occurs. This allows for more efficient use of resources.

The article then delves into how async Rust works, explaining that Rust provides async/await syntax to make writing concurrent code easier. The async/await syntax is built on top of the Future trait, which is the core of Rust's asynchronous programming story. The article provides an example of how async functions are defined in Rust, highlighting the use of the async keyword and the await keyword.

Overall, this article serves as a comprehensive guide for developers interested in leveraging asynchronous Rust on Cortex-M microcontrollers. It provides insights into the inner workings of asynchronous programming and introduces a framework that can unlock the power of concurrency in embedded software development.