Compiling Esterel into sequential code

Abstract

This paper presents a novel compiler for Esterel, a concurrent synchronous imperative language. It generates fast, small object code by compiling away concurrency, producing a single C function requiring no operating system support for threads. It translates an Esterel program into an acyclic concurrent control-flow graph from which code is synthesized that runs instructions in an order respecting inter-thread communication. Exceptions and preemption constructs become conditional branches. Variables save control state; conditional branches restore it. Although designed for Esterel, this approach could be applied to compiling other synchronous concurrent languages.