A Formally Verified Compiler for Lustre

Abstract

The correct compilation of block diagram languages like Lustre, Scade, and a discrete subset of Simulink is important since they are used to program critical embedded control software. We describe the specification and verification in an Interactive Theorem Prover of a compilation chain that treats the key aspects of Lustre: sampling, nodes, and delays. Building on CompCert, we show that repeated execution of the generated assembly code faithfully implements the dataflow semantics of source programs.

We resolve two key technical challenges. The first is the change from a synchronous dataflow semantics, where programs manipulate streams of values, to an imperative one, where computations manipulate memory sequentially. The second is the verified compilation of an imperative language with encapsulated state to C code where the state is realized by nested records. We also treat a standard control optimization that eliminates unnecessary conditional statements.

Type
Publication
Proceedings of the 38th ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation
PLDI'17
Lelio Brun
Lelio Brun
Postdoctoral research scientist in Computer Science

My research interests include synchronous languages, functional programming and verified compilation.