Ember-1 vs GLM 5.3
Ember-1 took 25 min 56 s and $1.78 at list price, GLM 5.3 took 22 min 22 s and $0.87 at list price. Ember-1 took 1.2× as long and cost 2.0× as much.
Pelican
Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle
Watch
Draw a mechanical wristwatch that shows the current local time, with a sweeping seconds hand and a date window. Make it look expensive.
Landing
Build the landing page for Lumen Cycles, a Copenhagen workshop that builds custom cargo bikes to order. Make it look like a real brand you would trust with 4,000 euros.
Breakout
Make a Breakout game I can play right now with the keyboard or the mouse. Give it several levels, a score and some juice.
Logo
Design a logo for Night Heron, an independent bookshop that only opens after dark.
About
Write the opening of the About us page for Patchbay, a three-person studio in Rotterdam that repairs vintage synthesizers. About 150 words.
Patchbay is a three-person workshop in Rotterdam dedicated to keeping vintage synthesizers alive. We work on the machines that shaped electronic music — analog polysynths, temperamental drum machines, early digital oddities — replacing tired capacitors, rebuilding keybeds, and coaxing silent oscillators back into tune.
Between us we bring decades of experience in electronics, instrument design, and music-making, but what unites us is simpler: we believe these machines were built to be played, not displayed. Every repair happens by hand at our benches, with period-correct components wherever possible and thoughtful modern solutions where reliability demands it. We test everything the only way that matters — by listening.
Whether your Juno has lost a voice, your 808 has lost its kick, or a flea-market find needs a full restoration, we treat each instrument as if it were heading back to a studio, a stage, and a long life of making noise. Because it is.
Patchbay is a three-person workshop in Rotterdam where vintage synthesizers come back to life. Whatever lands on our bench — a battered Minimoog, a Juno with dead keys, an ARP silent since the eighties — gets the same treatment: careful diagnosis, honest advice, and repairs done right.
We started Patchbay because we believe a good synthesizer shouldn't die of old age. These machines are more than circuits and sliders — they're the sound of records you grew up with, and the reason some of us got into music in the first place. Every one we fix goes back out into the world ready to make more.
Between us we handle everything from recapping and calibration to keybed work and the hunt for parts nobody has made in decades. It's slow, meticulous work, and we like it that way. If something in your collection hums, crackles, or refuses to turn on, bring it in — we'll see what we can do.
Specs and numbers
| Ember-1 | GLM 5.3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Fireworks | Z.ai |
| Made in | US | China |
| Released | 24 Sep 2026 | 18 Aug 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $3.00 | $0.08 |
| Price out, per M tokens | $15.00 | $3.60 |
| Context | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Weights | closed | open |
| Hacker News points | 589 | 3,306 |
| Time for the six prompts | 25 min 56 s | 22 min 22 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $1.78 | $0.87 |
GLM 5.3 was cheaper: $0.91 less at list price, and less on 5 of the 6 prompts. GLM 5.3 was faster: 3 min 34 s less in total, and faster on 2 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, Ember-1's Breakout game plays; GLM 5.3's stopped painting. GLM 5.3's Breakout game showed a blank first frame when the still was taken.
Rebuild this screen experiment: Ember-1's rebuild matched the screenshot at 67%; GLM 5.3 was not in it. Tea Garden experiment: Ember-1's game passed 5 of 5 checks, GLM 5.3's 1 of 5.