Abstract

We present the notion of translation validation as a new approach to the verification of translators (compilers, code generators). Rather than proving in advance that the compiler always produces a target code which correctly implements the source code (compiler verification), each individual translation (i.e. a run of the compiler) is followed by a validation phase which verifies that the target code produced on this run correctly implements the submitted source program. Several ingredients are necessary to set up the -- fully automatic -- translation validation process, among which are: 1. A common semantic framework for the representation of the source code and the generated target code. 2. A formalization of the notion of "correct implementation" as a refinement relation. 3. A syntactic simulation-based proof method which allows to automatically verify that one model of the semantic framework, representing the produced target code, correctly implements another model which repres...

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