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by BitsAndObjects
115 days ago
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I thought this might be better captured in a blog post, so here you go: https://ednutting.com/2026/02/20/sw-to-digital-logic-design.... I think if I spent more than the last 90 minutes on this, I might come up with more detailed and nuanced opinions for you. Irrespective, hopefully this offers some useful thoughts. Happy to continue the conversation here on HN. |
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However, most of it was already known and i was looking for something more specific/detailed given the OP article.
In the past i had worked on a custom SoC (on the software side) and had often interacted with the hardware designers to understand more of their domain. The first surprise was that most Verilog/RTL guys didn't know anything about software (not even assembly/C!) while of course embedded software guys (like myself) didn't know anything about HDLs. There was (and is) a very hard disconnect which is quite interesting. In the spirit of the OP article, the book i linked to actually shows a path via Vivado HLS for software folks to move into hardware design using their C/C++ programming skills. But i would like to see some hardware designer here validate that approach in the real-world. Especially now that you have powerful AI tools available to help you do stuff faster and easier.
With the rise of demanding AI/ML/Crypto applications, there is now a greater interest in designing new types of custom hardware requiring Hardware/Software Modeling(verification/benchmarking)/Co-Design/Co-Verification etc. They involve designing complete SoCs containing CPU/GPU/FPGAs based on specific designs. Given that hardware design is a universe of its own, not knowing the overall picture i.e. architecture/tools/methodologies/etc. makes it quite daunting for software folks to approach it.
PS: Maybe you can augment/create-new blog post with an actual case study based on your experiences on steps involved going from ideation to tapeout.