About ACM Software System Award

Xavier Leroy, Collège de France; Sandrine Blazy, University of Rennes 1, IRISA; Zaynah Dargaye, Nomadic Labs; Jacques-Henri Jourdan, CNRS, Laboratoire Méthodes Formelles; Michael Schmidt, AbsInt Angewandte Informatik; Bernhard Schommer, Saarland University, and AbsInt Angewandte Informatik GmbH; and Jean-Baptiste Tristan, Boston College, receive the ACM Software System Award for the development of CompCert, the first practically useful optimizing compiler targeting multiple commercial architectures that has a complete, mechanically checked proof of its correctness.

CompCert, initiated in 2005, is a compiler for the C programming language and the first industrial-strength compiler with a mechanically checked proof of correctness. It can be used with most computer architectures including PowerPC, ARM, RISC-V and x86 (32 and 64 bits) architectures.

When it was introduced, CompCert represented a major advance over other production compilers, because it did not experience miscompilation issues since it is formally verified using machine-assisted mathematical proofs. The code it produces is proved to behave exactly as specified by the semantics of the source C program. This level of confidence in the correctness of the compilation process enables CompCert to meet the highest levels of software assurance.

Today, CompCert continues as a research project at Inria, the French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology and is available under commercial and noncommercial licenses (source code openly available for noncommercial use). Other researchers build on CompCert, and multiple corporations use it for safety-critical applications.