Chisel
Ranked 2 of 4 hardware description languages by recommenders
People 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.
People 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.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 88%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Leading language for hardware design
“the number one language for building hardware these days via Chisel”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “The Sovereign Tech Fund Invests in Scala” “Chisel can at least lay claim to that crown, sure”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “The Sovereign Tech Fund Invests in Scala” “The state of the art in Python HDLs is Chisel”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: SHDL – A Minimal Hardware Description Language Built from Logic Gates”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Seen as niche with little traction
“Perhaps it's a very know and useful project, yet indeed seems very niche to me.”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “The Sovereign Tech Fund Invests in Scala” “Attempts such as CHISEL[1] (written in Scala)also havent gotten much traction”
Comment from 23 Dec 2025 in “FPGAs Need a New Future” “Chisel is still a blip for now.”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “The Sovereign Tech Fund Invests in Scala”
Other hardware description languages people recommend
The three most recommended other hardware description languages, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verilog | 13 | 16 | 45% | 6 | — | — |
| ChiselThis page | 7 | 1 | 88% | 4 | — | — |
| SHDL | 6 | 1 | 86% | 1 | — | — |
| Clash (Haskell-to-HDL compiler) | 5 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
All 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the ecosystem that has developed around it, particularly Chisel and CIRCT”
“Always a delight seeing Chisel in the wild”
“i never could get around the whole scala tooling - seemed a bit over the top”
“Chisel keeps the actual file operations lean”
“Chisel can at least lay claim to that crown, sure”
“Chisel is still a blip for now.”
“Perhaps it's a very know and useful project, yet indeed seems very niche to me.”
“the number one language for building hardware these days via Chisel”
“Chisel [0] is the core technology of the best open source RISC-V chips.”
“The state of the art in Python HDLs is Chisel”
“Attempts such as CHISEL[1] (written in Scala)also havent gotten much traction”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.