Why we're building XiperPy
Hardware engineers deserve the tools software engineers take for granted.
XiperPy is a Python-native hardware description language. The languages used to describe digital logic have stayed too far from modern software practice. XiperPy is the language we wish had existed the whole time.
What we keep hearing
What are your main pain points in HDL design?
These are the pain points XiperPy is designed to address.
Missing modern programming language constructs without compromising the HDL core.
Error checking before running the whole toolchain.
Simple modifications to interfaces or logic are often impossible.
The level of verification on HLS cores is very weak.
Internal poll of HDL engineers at a leading FPGA design house, April 2025.
What we believe
The language hardware deserves.
The quotes above describe friction engineers want to leave behind. The beliefs below define what a hardware description language should feel like in 2026.
- 01
The language is Python.
Real Python, with classes, generics, decorators, type hints, and the standard library, describes digital logic. Engineers stop learning two languages to do one job.
- 02
The generated HDL must be understandable and maintainable.
Generated VHDL and Verilog should look like code a team would have written: names, structure, and intent intact.
- 03
Python and HDL behavior must match.
If a Python simulation passes, the generated hardware behavior matches it. The language keeps source and emitted HDL accountable to the same tests.
- 04
Errors surface while editing.
Type checks, width mismatches, and interface mismatches are caught while engineers work.
- 05
Verification belongs in pytest.
Test benches in Python, properties in Hypothesis, and stimulus from numpy and pandas put verification close to the design source.
- 06
The language is open source.
XiperPy is Apache 2.0, on GitHub, day one. The language belongs to the engineers who use it.
Who's behind this
Are you also tired of waiting?
Martin spent two decades building production FPGA systems. He founded Enclustra, one of Europe's largest FPGA design houses, and watched a generation of engineers ship excellent hardware against tools that fought them at every step. Simon built developer platforms at SonarSource and ran engineering at the kind of scale where tooling either compounds or kills you.
Between us we've shipped FPGA systems and developer languages. XiperPy is the language we would have used.