Dr. Christian Ferdinand

Dr. Christian Ferdinand

Curriculum vitæ

Christian Ferdinand, born in 1965, completed the diploma de­gree program in computer science and electrical engineering at the Saarland University from 1985 to 1990.

Between 1991 to 1998, he was a research associate at the De­partment for Compiler Construction and Pro­gram­ming Lan­guages at the Saarland University. At this time, he also partic­ipated in the ESPRIT projects PROSPECTRA (Programming by Specification and Transformation) and COMPARE (Compiler Generation for Parallel Machines). He was also a member of the Collaborative Research Center no. 124 for VLSI and Par­allelism.

In 1997, he completed his doctorate, summa cum laude, his dissertation being entitled “Cache Behavior Prediction for Real-Time Systems”. In recogni­tion of his work, he was awarded the Dr. Eduard Martin Prize in 1999 for the best Ph.D. thesis in computer science at the Saar­land University.

Throughout his studies, Christian Ferdinand has always kept an eye on practical applications. He received an under­graduate student scholar­ship and a Ph.D. student scholarship from Siemens AG. Since February 1998, he is the CEO of AbsInt, of which he is one of the co-founders. His current work is focused on code gene­ration for digital signal processors and on timing analysis for real-time systems.

Research interests

  • Compiler construction
  • Parallel machines
  • Functional languages
  • Program semantics
  • Pattern matching
  • Cache analysis
  • Worst-case execution time prediction
  • Software visualization

Selected publications


  • Detecting Safety- and Security-Relevant Programming Defects by Sound Static Analysis (Best Paper Award). D. Kästner, L. Mauborgne, C. Ferdinand. In CYBER 2017: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Cyber-Technologies and Cyber-Systems, Barcelona, 2017. IARIA XPS Press, pp.  26–31, ISBN: 978-1-61208-605-7.
  • Exploiting Synergies between Static Analysis and Model-Based Testing. S. Salvi, D. Kästner, T. Bienmüller, C. Ferdinand. Proceedings of the 11th European Dependable Computing Conference (EDCC’15). IEEE Computer Society Press, Sept. 2015.
  • True Error or False Alarm? Refining Astrée’s Abstract Interpretation Results by EmbeddedTester’s Automatic Model-based Testing. S. Salvi, D. Kästner, T. Bienmüller, C. Ferdinand. Proceedings of the ERCIM/EWICS/ARTEMIS Workshop on Dependable Embedded and Cyber-physical Systems and Systems-of-Systems (DECSoS’14), Florence, 2014. Springer LNCS 8696.
  • Reliability of WCET Analysis. Daniel Kästner, Markus Pister, Gernot Gebhard, Christian Ferdinand. Embedded Real Time Software and Systems Congress ERTS², Toulouse, 2014.
  • Model-Driven Code Generation and Analysis. D. Kästner, C. Rustemeier, U. Kiffmeier, D. Fleischer, S. Nenova, R. Heckmann, M. Schlickling, C. Ferdinand. SAE World Congress 2014.
  • Static Verification of Non-Functional Software Requirements in the ISO 26262. D. Kästner, C. Ferdinand. Automotive — Safety & Security 2012. Sicherheit und Zuverlässigkeit für automobile Informationstechnik. Internationale Tagung der Fachgruppen Ada, ENCRESS und EZQN der Gesellschaft für Informatik, Karlsruhe, November, 2012.
  • Architecture Exploration and Timing Estimation during Early Design Phases. R. Heckmann, C. Ferdinand, D. Kästner, S. Nenova. International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer (STTT), SpringerLink OnlineFirst, 2012, DOI: 10.1007/s10009-012-0248-8.
  • Meeting Real-Time Requirements with Multi-Core Processors. D. Kästner, M. Schlickling, M. Pister, C. Cullmann, G. Gebhard, R. Heckmann, C. Ferdinand. Safecomp 2012 Workshop: Next Generation of System Assurance Approaches for Safety-Critical Systems (SASSUR), Magdeburg, September 2012.
  • Efficient Verification of Non-Functional Safety Properties by Abstract Interpretation: Timing, Stack Consumption, and Absence of Runtime Errors. D. Kästner, C. Ferdinand. Proceedings of the 29th International System Safety Conference ISSC2011, Las Vegas, 2011.
  • 100% Coverage for Safety-Critical Software — Efficient Testing by Static Analysis. D. Kästner, R. Heckmann, C. Ferdinand. Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Computer Safety, Reliability and Security (SAFECOMP), Vienna, 2010.
  • Astrée: Nachweis der Abwesenheit von Laufzeitfehlern. D. Kästner, C. Ferdinand, S. Wilhelm, S. Nenova, O. Honcharova, P. Cousot, R. Cousot, J. Feret, L. Mauborgne, A. Miné, X. Rival, E.-J. Sims. Proceedings of the GI workshop “Entwicklung zuverlässiger Software-Systeme”, Vol. 29 of Softwaretechnik-Trends, Regensburg, August 2009.
  • D. Kästner, R. Wilhelm, R. Heckmann, M. Schlickling, M. Pister, M. Jersak, K. Richter, C. Ferdinand. Timing Validation of Automotive Software. 3rd International Symposium on Leveraging Applications of Formal Methods, Verification and Validation (ISOLA), Kassandra, Greece, 2008.
  • Reinhold Heckmann, Christian Ferdinand. Verifying Safety-Critical Timing and Memory-Usage Properties of Embedded Software by Abstract Interpretation. DATE 2005, pages 618–619.
  • Reinhold Heckmann, Christian Ferdinand. Verifying Safety-Critical Properties of Embedded Software by Abstract Interpretation. Sicherheit 2005, pages 125–128.
  • Christian Ferdinand, Reinhold Heckmann. aiT: Worst-Case Execution Time Prediction by Static Program Analysis. IFIP Congress Topical Sessions 2004, pages 377–384.
  • Christian Ferdinand. Worst Case Execution Time Prediction by Static Program Analysis. IPDPS 2004.
  • Stephan Thesing, Jean Souyris, Reinhold Heckmann, Famantanantsoa Randimbivololona, Marc Langenbach, Reinhard Wilhelm, Christian Ferdinand. An Abstract Interpretation-Based Timing Validation of Hard Real-Time Avionics Software. DSN 2003.
  • C. Ferdinand, D. Kästner, F. Martin, M. Langenbach, M. Sicks, S. Wilhelm, R. Heckmann, N. Fritz, S. Thesing, F. Fontaine, H. Theiling, M. Schmidt, A. Evstiougov-Babaev, R. Wilhelm. Validierung des Zeitverhaltens von kritischer Echtzeit-Software. Workshop: Automotive SW Engineering & Concepts. 33. Jahrestagung der GI, Frankfurt/M. Informatik 2003 – Innovative Informatikanwendungen, Band 1 (ISBN 3-88579-363-6), pages 335–339, Lecture Notes in Informatics (LNI), 2003.
  • Christian Ferdinand, Reinhold Heckmann, Henrik Theiling, Reinhard Wilhelm. Convenient User Annotations for a WCET Tool. WCET 2003, pages 17–20.
  • Christian Ferdinand, Reinhold Heckmann, Marc Langenbach, Florian Martin, Michael Schmidt, Henrik Theiling, Stephan Thesing, Reinhard Wilhelm. Reliable and Precise WCET Determination for a Real-Life Processor. EMSOFT 2001, pages 469–485.
  • Henrik Theiling, Christian Ferdinand, Reinhard Wilhelm. Fast and Precise WCET Prediction by Separated Cache and Path Analyses. Real-Time Systems 18(2/3), pages 157–179, 2000.
  • Christian Ferdinand. Cache Behavior Prediction for Real-Time Systems. PhD thesis, Saarland University. ISBN 3-9307140-31-0, Pirrot, 1997.
  • Christian Ferdinand. A Fast and Efficient Cache Persistence Analysis. Saarland University, Special Research Project 124, Technical Report 10/97, 1997.
  • Christian Ferdinand, Reinhard Wilhelm. Run-Time Guarantees for Processors with Caches. Universität des Saarlandes, Sonderforschungsbereich 124, 1997.
  • Christian Ferdinand, Florian Martin, Reinhard Wilhelm. Applying Compiler Techniques to Cache Behavior Prediction. Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN Workshop on Languages, Compilers and Tools for Real-Time System (LCTRTS) Las Vegas, Nevada, pages 37–46, 1997.
  • Cache Behavior Prediction by Abstract Interpretation. Martin Alt, Christian Ferdinand, Florian Martin, Reinhard Wilhelm. SAS’96, Static Analysis Symposium, LNCS 1145, pages 52–66, Springer, 1996.
  • Graph Visualisation in a Compiler Project. Martin Alt, Christian Ferdinand, Georg Sander. P. Eades, Z. Khang, eds., Software Visualisation, World Scientific, 1996.
  • CLaX, A Visualized Compiler. Georg Sander, Martin Alt, Christian Ferdinand, Reinhard Wilhelm. F. J. Brandenburg, ed., Graph Drawing, Symposium on Graph Drawing GD’95, LNCS 1027, pages 459–462, Springer, 1996.
  • Tree Automata for Code Selection. Christian Ferdinand, Helmut Seidl, Reinhard Wilhelm. Acta Informatica, volume 31, pages 741–760, Springer, 1994.
  • The TrafoLa-H Subsystem. Martin Alt, Christian Fecht, Christian Ferdinand, Reinhard Wilhelm. B. Hoffmann, B. Krieg-Brückner, eds., Program Development by Specification and Transformation. LNCS 680, pages 539–576, Springer, 1993.
  • Pattern Matching in a Functional Transformation Language Using Treeparsing. Christian Ferdinand. P. Deransart and J. Maluszynski, eds., Programming Language Implementation and Logic Programming PLDI’90, LNCS 456, pages 358–371, Springer, 1990.
  • Pattern Matching in the Functional Transformation Language TRAFOLA. Christian Ferdinand. Master’s Thesis, Saarland University, 1990.