On the Limits of the Classical Approach to Cost Analysis

The classical approach to static cost analysis is based on transforming a given program into cost relations and solving them into closed-form upper-bounds. It is known that for some programs, this approach infers upper-bounds that are asymptotically less precise than the actual cost. As yet, it was assumed that this imprecision is due to the way cost relations are solved into upper-bounds. In this paper: (1) we show that this assumption is partially true, and identify the reason due to which cost relations cannot precisely model the cost of such programs; and (2) to overcome this imprecision, we develop a new approach to cost analysis, based on SMT and quantifier elimination. Interestingly, we find a strong relation between our approach and amortised cost analysis.

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