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In the DO 178C text, the development tools and verification tools are required to be qualified. A complier is certainly a development tool. But when searching "DO 178C qualified C compilers" I did not really find a compiler for C language. Instead, some articles said "DO 178C does not require to qualify compliers". Could someone help to explain why?

user15694577
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The qualification of tool are further defined in DO-330 (Software Tool Qualification Considerations) standard. According to DO-330, the tool must be qualified when the following three conditions are TRUE.

  1. the tool's output required to meet an objective of DO-178/DO-254/DO-278 standard.
  2. the tool can insert an error into the SW/HW or fail to detect an existing error in the SW/HW.
  3. the tool’s output is not be verified or confirmed by other verification activities.

So, if there is no verification to the compiler output, then the compiler must be qualified.

As far as I understand, a pure C language isn't recommended for any safety-critical software development, so regular C compiler can't be qualified. Subset of C (e.g. MISRA-C) potentially can be qualified.

Syafrudin
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    "... a pure C language isn't recommended for any safety-critical software development, so regular C compiler can't be qualified. Subset of C (e.g. MISRA-C) potentially can be qualified." - While it's true that defining a subset makes the qualification process easier, there is nothing that prevents you from qualifying a standard compiler to DAL-A / safety critical provided you go through the process of analyzing the output for the approved language aspects at the object and assembly level. I have done so professionally and personally with compilers like VC++ for x86 and gcc for ARM. – Terrance Nov 29 '21 at 20:38
  • thank you Terrance ... very informative ... in that case, could you further inform whether the compiler qualification applied as generic product or as specific application ? – Syafrudin Dec 01 '21 at 00:52