HDPython: A High Level Python Based Object-Oriented HDL Framework

TL;DR

HDPython is a high-level, object-oriented Python framework that translates Python code into VHDL, enabling hardware design with high-level programming features preserved.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach that maintains object-oriented features in hardware description by directly converting Python code to VHDL, unlike traditional methods that simplify high-level features.

Findings

Preserves object-oriented paradigms in hardware description

Facilitates high-level hardware design with Python

Converts Python code directly into VHDL

Abstract

We present a High-Level Python-based Hardware Description Language (HDPython), It uses Python as its source language and converts it to standard VHDL. Compared to other approaches of building converters from a high-level programming language into a hardware description language, this new approach aims to maintain an object-oriented paradigm throughout the entire process. Instead of removing all the high-level features from Python to make it into an HDL, this approach goes the opposite way. It tries to show how certain features from a high-level language can be implemented in an HDL, providing the corresponding benefits of high-level programming for the user.