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!
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!