Ember-1 vs Nemotron 3 Ultra
Ember-1 took 25 min 56 s and $1.78 at list price, Nemotron 3 Ultra took 14 min 14 s and $0.15 at list price. Ember-1 took 1.8× as long and cost 12× as much.
Ember-1
Fireworks · $15.00/M out · 589 HN pts
Nemotron 3 Ultra
NVIDIA · $2.40/M out · free route · 48 HN pts
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 began in a narrow workshop on the edge of Rotterdam’s Noord district, where the hum of aging oscillators meets the rhythm of the city’s canals. Founded by three synth enthusiasts — a former studio engineer, a circuit designer, and a musician who still plays the same Juno‑106 he bought in 1986 — the studio grew from late‑night repair sessions into a dedicated space for restoring the instruments that shaped electronic music’s golden era. Every unit that passes through our bench is treated with the same reverence we give a first‑press vinyl: capacitors are swapped, contacts cleaned, and calibration traced back to original service manuals. We don’t just fix synthesizers; we listen to their history, understand their quirks, and return them to the stage or studio ready to inspire the next generation of sound. Patchbay is small, intentional, and built on the belief that vintage gear deserves a future as vivid as its past.
Specs and numbers
| Ember-1 | Nemotron 3 Ultra | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Fireworks | NVIDIA |
| Made in | US | US |
| Released | 24 Sep 2026 | 4 Jun 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $3.00 | free route (list $0.60/M) |
| Price out, per M tokens | $15.00 | free route (list $2.40/M) |
| Context | 1,048,576 tokens | 262,144 tokens |
| Weights | closed | open |
| Hacker News points | 589 | 48 |
| Time for the six prompts | 25 min 56 s | 14 min 14 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $1.78 | $0.15 |
Nemotron 3 Ultra was cheaper: $1.63 less at list price, and less on each of the 6 prompts. Nemotron 3 Ultra was faster: 11 min 42 s less in total, and faster on 5 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, Ember-1's Breakout game plays; Nemotron 3 Ultra's loads but doesn't start.
Rebuild this screen experiment: Ember-1's rebuild matched the screenshot at 67%; Nemotron 3 Ultra was not in it. Tea Garden experiment: Ember-1's game passed 5 of 5 checks; Nemotron 3 Ultra was not in it.