WCC—WCET-Aware C Compiler

In this chapter, the utilized compiler framework is discussed. The chapter begins with an overview of work to existing frameworks that integrate WCET analyses into the compilation process. The basic workflow of the utilized WCET-aware C compiler WCC, which is similar to standard optimizing compilers, is presented to provide the reader with an overall overview of the WCET-aware compilation flow. Moreover, the integration of a static WCET analyzer into the compiler framework is discussed. In addition, a static loop analysis, which was developed in this work to enable an automatic WCET analysis, is presented. To exploit optimization potential for WCET minimization at source code level, WCET timing data has to be translated from the compiler’s backend into its frontend. This technique, which was developed in this work, is called back-annotation and will be introduced in this chapter. Finally, an overview of WCC’s target architecture, the Infineon TriCore processor, concludes this chapter.