A Formally Verified Compiler Back-end

  • Authors:
  • Xavier Leroy

  • Affiliations:
  • INRIA Paris-Rocquencourt, Le Chesnay, France 78153

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Automated Reasoning
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

This article describes the development and formal verification (proof of semantic preservation) of a compiler back-end from Cminor (a simple imperative intermediate language) to PowerPC assembly code, using the Coq proof assistant both for programming the compiler and for proving its soundness. Such a verified compiler is useful in the context of formal methods applied to the certification of critical software: the verification of the compiler guarantees that the safety properties proved on the source code hold for the executable compiled code as well.