I don't think languages that are used as much as C and C++ are ever truly get "replaced".
But as for "being a viable choice instead", we intend for Rust to be so. The devil, of course, is in the details: for example, if you're on an obscure or proprietary platform, a C compiler may be your only choice. In the context of this article, while LLVM will autovectorize some things, direct control of SIMD hasn't made it into stable yet, and requires a nightly today. But as far as the language and its power goes, our goal is to be, yes.
But as for "being a viable choice instead", we intend for Rust to be so. The devil, of course, is in the details: for example, if you're on an obscure or proprietary platform, a C compiler may be your only choice. In the context of this article, while LLVM will autovectorize some things, direct control of SIMD hasn't made it into stable yet, and requires a nightly today. But as far as the language and its power goes, our goal is to be, yes.