Escape the Local Maxima — One Pager

Introduction

I will design a computer from the ground up.

Everything above the CMOS transistors is subject to diverge from common patterns
A computer from the CPU through the apps can be designed and written by a single person
We will write make heavy use of mini languages to reduce code size and complexity
Networking and USB are out-of-scope — we will isolate these features into separate microcontrollers
The targeted user will be me: Focus on writing, reading the web, and programming. No games or 3D graphics. Interface will mostly be (custom) keyboard with limited trackpad use.
Avoid the von Neumann bottleneck
Consider the use of non-volatile memory
Avoid preemptive multitasking
Favor snappiness over computational throughput
C Is Not a Low-level Language – Your computer is not a fast PDP-11 and the API exposed by modern CPUs is almost as bad.
We don’t need 64 bits of address space and maybe don’t even need 32

Wirth’s Project Oberon is the canonical example of a project like this, particularly the 2013 Edition which includes a custom CPU.
Kay and Ingalls’ STEPS project is the model of revolutionary change that I want to emulate. I particularly like OMeta and their TCP from ASCII art.

Mechanical keyboard with FPGA for the matrix scan — Get some experience programming an FPGA and building hardware. Create the core input mechanism for the computer without using an existing microcontroller.
MetaPost canvas for output — I want to use something elegant for display. I took inspiration from Knuth/Hobby (TeX/DVI/MetaPost), Warnock (PostScript/PDF), and Gosling (NeWS). From the DVI format I like the opcode/operand model of decoding the format, it is concise and fast even on early-1980s computers, and favors the common case of building up lines out output from left to right. I have written several DVI and PostScript interpreters in various languages and have explored changing the output of the WEB in MetaPost to other intermediate languages.
Exploring Ohm — A modern PEG parser based on OMeta from the STEPS project. I’ve been using it to implement PostScript and other mini languages.
Exploring APL — I like the conciseness and elegance and the use of non-ASCII characters
Rewriting the ARM1 simulator — Trying to really understand how a processor works. Rewriting using several techniques: Modern Javascript for readability, bit arrays and matrices for performance and mathematical elegance. Along the way learning the APL way of programming and finally getting comfortable with graph theory.