The compiler, armcc, is an optimizing C and C++ compiler that compiles Standard C and Standard C++ source code into machine code for ARM architecture-based processors. Publications on the C and C++ standards are available from national standards bodies. For example, AFNOR in France and ANSI in the USA.

armcc complies with the Base Standard Application Binary Interface for the ARM Architecture (BSABI) and generates output objects in ELF with support for Debug With Arbitrary Record Format (DWARF) 3 debug tables. armcc uses the Edison Design Group (EDG) front end.

Many features of the compiler are designed to take advantage of the target processor or architecture that your code is designed to run on, so knowledge of your target processor or architecture is useful, and in some cases, essential, when working with the compiler.