Short answer: Ryan Aytay says defense equipment like software defined radios often runs on legacy C++ that isn't memory safe, and Code Metal can modernize a million lines to Rust with a guarantee it works on the device. MATLAB to VHDL is harder.
Watch this answer from Episode 48 (starts at 13:47) · Episode 48 notes and transcript
From Episode 48: The Code Running Your Plane Was Written Decades Ago. This Startup Proves It Still Works., starting at 13:47.
Ryan Aytay [13:46]: And I won't name them, but they're pretty obvious. There aren't that many of them. They support the US government. When you think about a company that, let's say does software defined radios or a company that does like, surveillance equipment or a company that does, critical communications equipment out in the field, they are in many cases built with legacy code. Let's say it's C++ And that code base ultimately, it's not safe, meaning memory safe. It could be subject to bad actors. It could, a number of different issues. It may not run at the performance level that, the customer wants it to run at. And so what we do in that case is we can go through and say like, hey, we'll modernize, a million lines of C++ to Rust just as an example in a very fast way, in a very efficient way, and we'll guarantee that it will work on the device that you actually need it to, like the ones I mentioned before. And so I think that's a, that's also in our sweet spot of what we do.
Ryan Aytay [14:46]: There are many I think what I'm finding in this environment is there are many legacy problems that are defined by code similar to that slide I showed, which are mission critical in nature that need, modernization, that needs translation, that need optimization. Now some are easier than others. Right? So you could say actually C++ to Rust may be slightly easier to tackle than let's say like a MATLAB to VHDL type of thing. Those are a little more difficult, but again, we can do these things. It's just a matter of like how does the technology progress. And of course, I also I think it's important to call that we have many great you know, when I think about things like formal methods, we have a team of people almost like a research department that we've brought some of the best people together, folks that come from places like NASA or Stanford or, AWS or, think of some of the great companies out there in great academic institutions. And so we're building an expertise, around formal methods and around verification and validation that I think allow us to make sure that provability is something that we will stand by. And it's really when you think about CodeMetal, we are in many ways focused on safety but also focused on trust. And I think you need in this world to be able to do that.
Ryan Aytay [16:04]: And so lots of use cases. We're just getting started, but so far so good and a lot of great traction.
