Retina
Next-generation DDS, built natively for Rust.
Memory-safe, fast, and standalone. Retina gives your robotics and embedded systems dependable DDS middleware—without the bloat. ROS is not required.
Why teams choose Retina
- Loans you can't misuse: Rust's ownership model means a shared-memory loan can't be used after it's released—the compiler checks it.
- Smart routing, one API: Write your code once. Retina routes same-host traffic through shared memory and remote peers through UDP, with the same typed API.
- No ROS baggage: Retina builds and runs as standalone DDS middleware. Optional integrations stay outside the measured data path.
- Plays well with C++: Retina and Tin DDS share requirement IDs and wire examples, so Rust services and C++ controllers agree on the wire.
Engineering without surprises
Predictable memory. No surprise allocations.
Histories and protocol state have configured limits. When storage fills, you get an explicit, handleable error instead of an unexpected allocation spike.
Lifetimes you can trust
Discovery and repair aren't detached background work. They belong to an owning runtime with cancellation and join paths, so shutdown is clean and easy to follow.
Measured through the real product path
The public benchmark uses persistent publisher and subscriber processes, full discovery and reliability, delivery counters, and the same 64-byte workload contract as the comparison cohort.
C++ and Rust
C++ and Rust, speaking the same language
Tin DDS and Retina share requirement IDs and wire examples for discovery, reliability, history, security, and teleoperation. A C++ controller and a Rust service agree on the wire, while each uses the ownership style natural to its language.
Security
Security building blocks, honestly scoped
Retina validates certificates, signed governance, handshake transcripts, key agreement, and protected-message primitives. Runtime handshake and permissions wiring remain in progress; cryptographic code alone is not presented as a complete secured DDS domain.
What works today
- A typed publish/subscribe API with DDS type support derived from Rust types.
- SPDP and SEDP discovery with reliable RTPS delivery and repair.
- Bounded reader and writer histories, late-reader replay, and persistence.
- Linux and Windows builds with machine-readable benchmark evidence.
Ready to see it in action?
Tell us about your target hardware and workload, and we'll discuss evaluation access for your program.
Contact engineering@tinverse.com.