A novel WCET semantics of synchronous programs

Abstract

Semantics for synchronous programming languages are well known. They capture the execution behaviour of reactive systems using precise formal operational or denotational models for verification and unambiguous semantics-preserving compilation. As synchronous programs are highly time critical, there is an imminent need for the development of an execution time aware semantics that can be used as the formal basis ofWCET tools. To this end we propose such a compositional semantics for synchronous programs. Our approach, which is algebraic and based on formal power series in min-max-plus algebra, combines in one setting both the linear system theory for timing and constructive Gödel-Dummet logic for functional specification of synchronisation behaviour. The developed semantics is illustrated using a running example in the SCCharts language.