The best hardware description languages, according to hackers
4 hardware description languages recommended in Hacker News comments over the past year, ranked by how many separate people recommend each one.
All hardware description languages
- VerilogWidely used to describe digital chips; recommended for parallel modelling and mature tooling. Critics say it is clumsy and was designed for simulation, not synthesis.13recommend
- ChiselPeople recommend Chisel as a leading language for designing hardware, and it is the core technology behind open source RISC-V chips. Critics say it is niche and has seen little traction.7recommend
- SHDLA minimal hardware description language built from logic gates, praised for readable examples and documentation that suit beginners. Critics say it is not very useful for getting real work done.6recommend
- Clash (Haskell-to-HDL compiler)Free Haskell-to-HDL compiler; people recommend it because functional programming suits describing circuits.5recommend