3nd International Workshop on Worst-Case Execution Time Analysis (WCET'2003),
Polytechnic Instritute of Porto, Portugal, July 1, 2003
Compiler Support for WCET Analysis: a Wish List
Guillem Bernat and Niklas Holsti
Abstract
Static timing analysis of a computer program needs both high-level information
from the source code of the program, and low-level information from the
compiled object code. Compilers and linkers could support such analysis by
providing more and better information about the structure and behaviour of the
source and object code and about the relationship between source and object
code. Moreover, some parts of timing analysis would be eased by more control
over the code generation process. Finally, timing analysis often depends on
annotations or assertions embedded in the source code, or referring to the
source code. Compilers and linkers could help us make use of annotations by
translating the annotations from the source domain to the object domain. To
make these needs known to compiler developers and vendors, we propose the
collection of a "wish list" of requirements from academic and industrial groups
working in timing analysis. We discuss how such a list should be selected,
presented and motivated, with emphasis on finding other users with similar
needs, for example other kinds of static analysis, debugging or program
verification.
paper (pdf)
