Re:I built a hardware processor that runs Python
by boxed on Monday April 28, 2025 @09:29AM
(#43821339)
How big a deal would it be to include the bytecode->PySM translation into the ISA? It seems like it would be even cooler if the CPU actually ran python bytecode itself.
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Re:I built a hardware processor that runs Python
by hwpythonner on Monday April 28, 2025 @09:49AM
(#43821522)
That's a great question!
I actually thought a lot about that early on.
In theory, you could build a CPU that directly interprets Python bytecode — but Python bytecode is quite high-level and irregular compared to typical CPU instructions. It would add a lot of complexity and make pipelining much harder, which would hurt performance, especially for real-time or embedded use.
By compiling the Python bytecode ahead of time into a simpler, stack-based ISA (what I call PySM), the CPU can stay clean, highly pipelined, and efficient. It also opens the door in the future to potentially supporting other languages that could target the same ISA!