Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Inkling
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning took 10 min 9 s and $0.012 at list price, Inkling took 8 min 30 s and $0.21 at list price. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning took 1.2× as long, and Inkling cost 18× as much.
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
NVIDIA · $0.20/M out · free route · 399 HN pts
Inkling
Thinking Machines · $4.05/M out · free route · 4 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 studio in Rotterdam devoted to the restoration and repair of vintage synthesizers. We believe analog gear holds a living voice, and our purpose is to safeguard that sound for musicians, collectors, and creators who value authenticity. With hands-on experience in circuitry, voltage calibration, and component preservation, we treat every console, drum machine, or modular voice with meticulous care. Rotterdam’s eclectic artistic community fuels our commitment to keeping analog heritage alive, bridging past technology with present music. Whether rescuing a neglected lab unit or reviving a cherished polysynth, we approach each instrument as a unique piece of musical history, ensuring it performs as intended for years ahead. We love helping artists reconnect with the warmth and character only vintage hardware can offer. Our workshop sits in the heart of the city, where dusty circuit boards meet fresh compositions, and every repaired synth becomes part of a new musical story.
Patchbay is a three-person repair studio in Rotterdam dedicated to vintage synthesizers. We work on analog circuits, replace failing capacitors and resistors, calibrate unstable oscillators, and restore instruments that have been silent for years. Our bench sees early Japanese mono synths, European string machines, American polys, and large modular systems. We treat each repair as a specific problem rather than a routine job, because these machines were built differently and fail differently. The studio grew out of our own need for careful, local repairs. Over time, musicians, collectors, and producers across the Netherlands started bringing us gear they could not trust elsewhere. We open every case with the same approach: diagnose the fault properly, use appropriate parts, and test the result thoroughly. We do not apply quick fixes or ignore underlying issues. Whether your synthesizer suffers from tuning drift, dead voices, noisy outputs, or an unknown electrical fault, we are in Rotterdam to find the cause and return it to reliable working condition.
Specs and numbers
| Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Inkling | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | NVIDIA | Thinking Machines |
| Made in | US | US |
| Released | 11 Aug 2026 | 17 Jul 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | free route (list $0.07/M) | free route (list $1.00/M) |
| Price out, per M tokens | free route (list $0.20/M) | free route (list $4.05/M) |
| Context | 262,144 tokens | 524,288 tokens |
| Weights | open | open |
| Hacker News points | 399 | 4 |
| Time for the six prompts | 10 min 9 s | 8 min 30 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $0.012 | $0.21 |
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning was cheaper: $0.20 less at list price, and less on each of the 6 prompts. Inkling was faster: 1 min 39 s less in total, and faster on 5 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, both Breakout games play.
Rebuild this screen experiment: Inkling's rebuild matched the screenshot at 51%; Nemotron 3.5 Lightning was not in it. Tea Garden experiment: Inkling's game passed 5 of 5 checks; Nemotron 3.5 Lightning was not in it.





