embedded-wasm-apps

Run native, statically-compiled apps on any platform, using WebAssembly.
Examples include AssemblyScript, Rust, C/C++, TinyGo, Zig, Virgil, WAT, etc.

How it works

This does not use Wasm3 engine. The approach is similar to WasmBoxC or RLBox:

1. Compile source code to wasm
2. Translate wasm to C using wasm2c
3. Compile produced C, link with a thin runtime implementation using the native platform toolchain

Benefits

• Language/toolchain decoupling
• Resilience against attacks (RCE, Control-flow hijacking)
• Sandboxing / SFI (Software Fault Isolation)
• Enables wasm transformations, like instrumentation or gas metering
• Software-based memory virtualization
• Moderate runtime overhead (mostly depends on the source language/runtime)
  • Small performance hit (~10-30% slowdown compared to native modules)
  • Moderate binary size increase
• Highly portable

Example

$ make APP=rust
    Finished release [optimized] target(s) in 0.00s
$ pio run -e esp32 -t upload
$ pio device monitor
Initializing WebAssembly...
🦀 Rust is running!

$ make APP=assemblyscript
    > npm run asbuild:optimized
$ pio run -e esp32 -t upload
$ pio device monitor
Initializing WebAssembly...
🚀 AssemblyScript is running!

$ make APP=tinygo
$ pio run -e esp32 -t upload
$ pio device monitor
Initializing WebAssembly...
🤖 TinyGo is running!

Building WASM apps

Ensure the required tools are in your PATH:

• WABT v1.0.36
• Binaryen v118

# AssemblyScript v0.27 (needs Node.js)
make APP=assemblyscript

# Rust 1.80.1
rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown
make APP=rust

# C/C++ (needs Clang)
make APP=cpp

# C99 Coremark (needs Clang)
make APP=coremark

# TinyGo v0.33.0 + Go v1.23.0
make APP=tinygo

# Zig v0.13.0
make APP=zig

# Virgil (Aeneas III-7.1632)
make APP=virgil

# WAT
make APP=wat

Resulting WASM file comparison:

AS	C/C++	Coremark	Rust	TinyGo	Virgil	WAT	Zig
3951	864	10800	12264	1227	315	223	1057

Building and running with PlatformIO

# For ESP32:
pio run -e esp32 -t upload

# For ESP8266:
pio run -e esp8266 -t upload

# For Raspberry Pi Pico:
pio run -e rpi-pico -t upload

# Open serial monitor
pio device monitor --quiet

Building and running with Particle

Requires particle-cli. Should work on all Particle devices i.e. Spark Core, Photon, Electron, Argon, Boron, P2 / Photon2:

particle flash MyDevice ./src/*

# Open serial monitor
particle serial monitor --follow

License

This project is released under The MIT License (MIT)