If you do not understand FPGAs, then C++ to VHDL/Verilog is lipstick on a pig at best.
Here's the thing:
Knowing VHDL/Verilog will not:
- Get you a job with compensation on the same level as ML/Web Dev.
- Magically make your tech/startup work better
- Fulfill buzzword requirements for investors
These sort of low level tooling is tremendously difficult to make profitable unless you already have some sort of vendor lock-in i.e. silicon, or an application that is extremely demanding in terms of efficiency or speed e.g. High Frequency Trading, network switches, dot-product-machines (commonly known as ML) and crypto hardware. Unfortunately any other applications for FPGAs tend to closely related to the embedded space (robotics, aerospace) and again it's significantly more annoying to monetize compared to e.g. a SaaS oriented around ML. Especially so it you are not a massive corporation with deep pockets.
The closest we have come to a high level tool for FPGA synthesis is reconfigure.io but they got acquired and is now effectively dead.
CPUs and ASICs have become too powerful and too cheap. Even with Moore's law tapering off, the gains provided by FPGAs are still too narrows. Electrical engineers are cheap. Physics have not changed much in recent decades. A couple computer architecture courses is more than enough to bring an EE graduate up to speed (referring to FPGAs here, ASICs are another story)
Here's the thing:
Knowing VHDL/Verilog will not:
- Get you a job with compensation on the same level as ML/Web Dev.
- Magically make your tech/startup work better
- Fulfill buzzword requirements for investors
These sort of low level tooling is tremendously difficult to make profitable unless you already have some sort of vendor lock-in i.e. silicon, or an application that is extremely demanding in terms of efficiency or speed e.g. High Frequency Trading, network switches, dot-product-machines (commonly known as ML) and crypto hardware. Unfortunately any other applications for FPGAs tend to closely related to the embedded space (robotics, aerospace) and again it's significantly more annoying to monetize compared to e.g. a SaaS oriented around ML. Especially so it you are not a massive corporation with deep pockets.
The closest we have come to a high level tool for FPGA synthesis is reconfigure.io but they got acquired and is now effectively dead.
CPUs and ASICs have become too powerful and too cheap. Even with Moore's law tapering off, the gains provided by FPGAs are still too narrows. Electrical engineers are cheap. Physics have not changed much in recent decades. A couple computer architecture courses is more than enough to bring an EE graduate up to speed (referring to FPGAs here, ASICs are another story)