Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

This is a simulator for MSAP-1, a custom 8-bit computer built on breadboard and inspired by the SAP-1 architecture. It allows users to write programs in a primitive assembly language, load them onto the simulated… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.

1. 1
   We built an 8-bit CPU as 2nd year EE students▲108

   Hi! me and my friends together built an 8 bit CPU implemented in Logisim purely from scratch. The control unit of this system does not implement the generic microcode ROM or any kind of RAM. This was made purely from discrete logic gates and coded the system to run different programs. key features: Custom 16-instruction Harvard ISA, 8-bit fixed format, 4 general purpose registers Hardwired control unit built entirely from AND/OR gate logic matrix Dual-phase clocking to eliminate race conditions Bootstrap Control Unit that cold-boots via ROM-to-RAM transfer Early-exit conditional…

   Jun 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

2. 2
   I built an AI that turns GitHub codebases into easy tutorials▲923

   https://the-pocket.github.io/Tutorial-Codebase-Knowledge/

   2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

3. 3H1
   Homebrew 16bit CPU from 74HC logic with C compiler and Unix-like OS▲192

   This is a 16bit CPU+Minicomputer from pure 74 series logic. It has user/kernel modes, virtual memory, prioritized IRQ's and DMA. It has a full C compiler and a unix-like OS. It's still in development.

   2023 · sol-1.org · its alternatives →

4. 4VB
   Virtual breadboard in the browser, inspired by Ben Eater's 6502▲409

   2021 · tejotron.com · its alternatives →

5. 5
   8-bit CPU simulator in C▲67

   A digital logic simulation written in C. Contribute to rzscheck/logic development by creating an account on GitHub.

   2020 · github.com · its alternatives →

6. 6BA
   BOOLR, a digital logic simulator▲78

   I am a Dutch high school student and last year I had to do a large project of my own choice. Together with two other guys I decided to do a project about digital logic. We had an ambitious plan: building an 8-bits computer. At that time I started learning programming and I already knew some HTML and CSS. So we decided to not build a physical computer, but one running in a self-built simulator. I was going to build the simulator, the other guys took care of the computer. I was hard, our school hadn't taught us anything about computers and programming so we had to learn everything ourselves.…

   2017 · its alternatives →

7. 7
   I made a game where you build a CPU from logic gates▲102

   I built ChipBuilder to make computer architecture more approachable through interactive puzzles. You start with basic logic gates like AND, OR, and NOT, then gradually combine them into adders, multiplexers, memory, an ALU, and eventually a complete CPU. Once you've built the hardware, you can write assembly programs that run on the processor you created. The game is inspired by courses like Nand2Tetris, but everything runs directly in the browser with a visual circuit editor, simulations, and progressively harder challenges.

   Jul 2026 · select.supply · its alternatives →

8. 8
   A nibble-oriented CPU in Verilog to build a scientific calculator▲119

   The core question: how did HP's scientific calculators actually work at the gate level? That rabbit hole led to building one from scratch. The architectural decision everything else follows from: a decimal calculator should store numbers as BCD — one decimal digit per 4-bit nibble. A standard byte-oriented CPU (Z80, 6502) fights that layout constantly. So I designed a small custom CPU in Verilog where 4 bits is the natural data width and memory is nibble addressable. What the project covers: - Custom CPU: Harvard architecture, 12-bit ISA, 8-state execution FSM, hardware stack guard with a…

   May 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

9. 9
   'Hello, World ' in x86 assembly, but make it gibberish▲101

   Hello, World! written in seemingly "gibberish" x86 assembly using obfuscation on the assembly and machine code -level - phoreverpheebs/gibberish

   2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

10. 10IB
    I built a toy TPU that can do inference and training on the XOR problem▲134

    We wanted to do something very challenging to prove to ourselves that we can do anything we put our mind to. The reasoning for why we chose to build a toy TPU specifically is fairly simple: - Building a chip for ML workloads seemed cool - There was no well-documented open source repo for an ML accelerator that performed both inference and training None of us have real professional experience in hardware design, which, in a way, made the TPU even more appealing since we weren't able to estimate exactly how difficult it would be. As we worked on the initial stages of this project, we…

    2025 · tinytpu.com · its alternatives →

11. 11
    I ported Tree-sitter to Go▲222

    This started as a hard requirement for my TUI-based editor application, it ended up going in a few different directions. A suite of tools that help with semantic code entities: https://github.com/odvcencio/gts-suite A next-gen version control system called Got: https://github.com/odvcencio/got I think this has some pretty big potential! I think there's many classes of application (particularly legacy architecture) that can benefit from these kinds of analysis tooling. My next post will be about composing all these together, an exciting project I call…

    Feb 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

12. 12
    PlanckForth – Bootstrapping an interpreter from handwritten 1kb binary▲132

    Bootstrapping a Forth interpreter from hand-written tiny ELF binary. Just for fun. - GitHub - nineties/planckforth: Bootstrapping a Forth interpreter from hand-written tiny ELF binary. Just for fun.

    2021 · github.com · its alternatives →

13. 13GI
    Going into freshman year, figured I should build an interpreter▲138

    Hi all! I'm going into my freshman year, and figured that the best way to prepare for the intro to programming Racket course would be to implement my own garbage-collected, dynamically typed, functional programming language in C ;) Anyways... here's the repo: https://github.com/liam-ilan/crumb I started learning C over the summer, so I still have a whole lot to learn... Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! :D

    2023 · its alternatives →

14. 14MA
    Manta – A tool for FPGA Debugging and Rapid Prototyping▲86

    Hi HN! I'm Fischer, and I'm super stoked to share a project that I've been working on for a little over a year: Manta, an open-source, cross-platform, vendor-independent tool for debugging and rapid prototyping with FPGAs. This was originally my Master's Thesis at MIT, where I developed it for our course on FPGA design. We needed an alternative to vendor debugging tools, which only supported x86 machines running Windows or Linux. We were able to patch in macOS support with VMs, but as more students came bringing ARM-based devices, we needed a new tool. So I developed this. It's called Manta,…

    2024 · fischermoseley.github.io · its alternatives →

15. 15
    VibeShift MCP▲141

    Hi HN, We are the devs behind VibeShift. We have been building this MCP server to put AI coding assistants in an automatic feedback loop. They code, test, debug, fix everything until we have a fully working, secure code. It tests like a real user, copies network/console and logical errors to give them back to cursor. (1 min demo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN_RgQGa8B0) We felt this was the natural next step for AI coding assistants. And with new asynchronous assistants like codex, having a plug & play tester makes sure you don't have to spend time debugging and…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

16. 16
    I built an 8-bit CPU simulator in Python from scratch▲72

    I built a tiny 8-bit CPU simulator in Python to better understand how computers work at a low level. It visualizes registers, memory, and instructions in real-time, so you can actually see each operation as it happens. You can write simple assembly code and watch how the CPU executes it step by step. The project is mainly for learning and experimentation, but I’d love feedback or ideas for improvement.

    Oct 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

17. 17
    I'm 17 and wrote a guide on how to build your own programming language▲149

    Hey! I’m JC. I’m 17 and part of Hack Club, a nonprofit where we help teenagers ship programming projects with their friends while growing technically. A while ago, I asked myself the question, “How exactly do programming languages work behind the scenes?” It seemed really daunting until I went to a half hour workshop at a high school hackathon about writing a tree-walk interpreter and realized that getting started was actually super fun. This guide is designed in the vein of that - to get people, especially teenagers, started on learning how to build a programming language in a literal…

    2024 · easel.hackclub.com · its alternatives →

18. 18
    I wrote a VM and Compiler for a small language in Go▲37

    My implementation of Thorsten Bell's book (Writing an Interpreter in Go) - actuallyachraf/monkey-giggle

    2020 · github.com · its alternatives →

19. 19
    A compiler for a small language into x86-64 assembly▲74

    Compiler for a small language into x86-64 Assembly - MauriceGit/compiler

    2020 · github.com · its alternatives →

20. 20
    Avremu – An 8-Bit Microcontroller in Pure LaTeX▲122

    GitLab Community Edition

    2014 · gitlab.brokenpipe.de · its alternatives →

21. 21MW
    My "weekend" project, an ML dialect and compiler▲68

    2012 · texodus.github.com · its alternatives →

22. 22
    My microkernel-based OS built from scratch now has basic Unix commands▲69

    This project contains no code from Linux, BSD, Minix, or any other OS. Everything up until this point is written entirely from scratch, including a pure microkernel (that only implements multiprocessor priority scheduling, memory management, and interprocess communication), a work-in-progress implementation of the standard C library, and a variety of servers that provide drivers and other essential OS functionality. At the time of writing this post, the servers provide drivers for the keyboard, NVMe SSDs (that works on real hardware), a Unix-like virtual file system (with a single root…

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

23. 23DA
    Deltix – AI Driven Testing▲54

    Write a task in plain English. An AI agent runs it on a simulator on your Mac and tells you if a real user could complete it. Save the successful run as a regression check you can replay later.

    Aug 2026 · app.deltix.ai · its alternatives →

24. 24
    Crabs All the Way Down – Running Rust on Logic Gates▲34

    Made an ARM Thumb CPU from scratch in a digital circuit simulator for fun and decided to push the joke a little further and run real stuff on it, like a Web server, a Scheme interpreter, a MIDI player, and a VT100 emulator. This is basically a how-did-we-get-here blogpost, it's my second one of this kind, I'd love any feedback you might have.

    2022 · zdimension.fr · its alternatives →

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →