Efficient code generation from synchronous programs

Abstract

We present a new compilation technique for generating efficient code from synchronous programs. The main idea of our approach consists of computing for each program location an instantaneous statement (called a job) that has to be executed whenever the corresponding program location is active. Given the computed jobs, the overall execution scheme is highly flexible, very efficient, but nevertheless very simple: At each instant, it essentially consists of executing the set of active jobs according to their dynamic dependencies. Besides the required outputs, the execution of the jobs additionally yields the set of active threads for the next instant. As our translation directly follows the structure of the source code, the correctness of the translation can be easily checked by theorem provers. Furthermore, our translation scheme offers new potential for multi-processor execution, modular compilation, and multi-language code generation.