Yeah that was my first thing. Wait a minute you run a compiler on it? It's literally compiled code, not direct. Which is fine, but yeah, overselling what it is/does.
Still cool, but I would definitely ease back the first claim.
I was going to say it does make me wonder how much a pain a direct processor like this would be in terms of having to constantly update it to adapt to the new syntax/semantics everytime there's a new release.
Also - are there any processors made to mimic ASTs directly? I figure a Lisp machine does something like that, but not quite... Though I've never even thought to look at how that worked on the hardware side.
EDIT: I'm not sure AST is the correct concept, exactly, but something akin to that... Like building a physical structure of the tree and process it like an interpreter would. I think something like that would require like a real-time self-programming FPGA?
PyXL deliberately avoids tying itself to Python’s high-level syntax or rapid surface changes.
The system compiles Python source to CPython ByteCode, and then from ByteCode to a hardware-friendly instruction set. Since it builds on ByteCode—not raw syntax—it’s largely insulated from most language-level changes. The ByteCode spec evolves slowly, and updates typically mean handling a few new opcodes in the compiler, not reworking the hardware.
Long-term, the hardware ISA is designed to remain fixed, with most future updates handled entirely in the toolchain. That separation ensures PyXL can evolve with Python without needing silicon changes.
Still cool, but I would definitely ease back the first claim.
I was going to say it does make me wonder how much a pain a direct processor like this would be in terms of having to constantly update it to adapt to the new syntax/semantics everytime there's a new release.
Also - are there any processors made to mimic ASTs directly? I figure a Lisp machine does something like that, but not quite... Though I've never even thought to look at how that worked on the hardware side.
EDIT: I'm not sure AST is the correct concept, exactly, but something akin to that... Like building a physical structure of the tree and process it like an interpreter would. I think something like that would require like a real-time self-programming FPGA?