From bounded affine types to automatic timing analysis

Abstract

Bounded linear types have proved to be useful for automated resource analysis and control in functional programming languages. In this paper we introduce an affine bounded linear typing discipline on a general notion of resource which can be modeled in a semiring. For this type system we provide both a general type-inference procedure, parameterized by the decision procedure of the semiring equational theory, and a (coherent) categorical semantics. This is a very useful type-theoretic and denotational framework for many applications to resource-sensitive compilation, and it represents a generalization of several existing type systems. As a non-trivial instance, motivated by our ongoing work on hardware compilation, we present a complex new application to calculating and controlling timing of execution in a (recursion-free) higher-order functional programming language with local store.