Linux 6.8 Welcomes First Rust-Written Network PHY Driver
Originally Published 2 years ago — by Phoronix
The upcoming Linux 6.8 kernel cycle will introduce the first Rust network driver, as the "net-phy-rust" branch has been merged to net-next.git. This branch includes Rust abstractions necessary for network PHY drivers, with the addition of a Rust version of the Asix PHY driver. The Rust version is equivalent to the existing C version, and enabling it can be done using the "AX88796B_RUST_PHY" Kconfig switch. While the hardware supported by this driver may not be the most exciting, it paves the way for other memory-safe network drivers to be developed in Rust.