High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! A cross compiler is a compiler capable of creating executable code for a platform other than the one on which the compiler is running. Cross compiler tools are used to generate executables for embedded system or multiple platforms. It is used to compile for a platform upon which it is not feasible to do the compiling, like microcontrollers that don`t support an operating system. It has become more common to use this tool for paravirtualization where a system may have one or more platforms in use.