https://roderickgreen.com/ Recent content on Roderick Green Hugo en-us Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roderickgreen.com/posts/fast-poker-hand-eval/ Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roderickgreen.com/posts/fast-poker-hand-eval/ <h2 id="introduction">Introduction <a class="anchor" href="#introduction" aria-label="Link to this section">#</a></h2> <p>This is a post about writing fast software in a roundabout way. Starting from a function definition, we define and synthesize a hardware circuit that implements it. Then we optimize the circuit using hardware minimizers, and finally generate code from the minimized circuit. I started initial work on this project years ago while computing some random poker hand statistics. I got interested in what made hand evaluators fast and how to make them faster. I put it back down before making much progress. With the arrival of Claude I can pick a few of these projects back up and bring one or two to life.</p>