First rig. Big ideas.
You don’t need decades of experience to think differently. If you’re choosing your first motherboard, learning what makes a great build, or planning your dream setup, you belong in the conversation.
NIX / CUSTOM
For the people who build their own.
From your first custom PC to the first NIX hardware target: curiosity is the starting point. A deliberate hardware plan is how we move forward.
FOR BUILDERS / BY INSTINCT
Built for the smartest
computer users
in the world.
The ones who ask better questions. Pick their own parts. And see a new build as the beginning of something bigger. NIX is a vision for an operating system as ambitious as the computer you want to build.
You chose every part.
Choose what comes next.
Your curiosity doesn’t stop when the case closes. Explore a new approach to custom x64 computing: a prompt-first interface, local intelligence, and a Core designed from the ground up.
Start with “what if.”
Write a book. Imagine a workspace. Find a new way to play. The NIX idea starts with what you want to do—and asks how your computer can help you get there.
Your build. Your curiosity. A new starting point.
NIX is currently a proposed architecture. Follow the build plan as hardware support and the first working experiences take shape.
YOUR BUILD / THE FIRST TARGET
Start curious.
Choose deliberately.
NIX is being designed for custom x64 desktops. The initial engineering target is one defined machine profile: CPU, motherboard, GPU, storage, networking, audio, and USB controllers. That narrow scope gives each driver and recovery path a concrete place to be tested.
Planning your first PC?
Start with the tasks you care about: writing, creative work, gaming, or development. Learn how CPU, memory, graphics, and storage choices serve those tasks. Follow NIX’s hardware work before buying parts specifically for it.
Already built your rig?
Keep a device inventory, including exact controller and GPU models. A familiar connector or CPU architecture alone does not establish driver support.
Want to build NIX itself?
Explore the Core source and the delivery plan. The most useful foundation is reproducible boot, clear diagnostics, and changes that can be checked on the selected target.
05 / CORE & HARDWARE
A narrow hardware target.
A deliberate driver plan.
| Milestone | Required pieces | Completion gate |
|---|---|---|
| Boot & recovery | UEFI loader, framebuffer handoff, serial diagnostics, ACPI tables, page tables, allocator, interrupts, timers, SMP, recovery image | Repeatable boot on the selected machine; crash diagnostics and recovery without AI |
| Usable prompt interface | USB xHCI + HID keyboard/mouse, PCIe, NVMe/AHCI storage, persistent filesystem, Ethernet, compositor and basic display output | Prompt input, durable saves, restart, offline prompt interface, supported network adapter |
| Local AI | Model loader, tokenizer, CPU inference backend, memory budgeting and cancellation; later supported GPU compute driver/runtime | Local intent processing with network disabled and measured latency/RAM use |
| Virtualization | Intel VT-x or AMD-V, nested paging, vCPU lifecycle, guest interrupts, IOMMU, device models, storage/network/display channels | A guest boots and remains isolated; Pod crash does not crash the NIX interface |
| Gaming & XR | GPU acceleration, graphics API/runtime, audio, game controllers, headset transport, tracking, display timing and an XR runtime | Per-device graphics and latency tests; per-game compatibility results |
Prefer restartable user-space drivers where practical. Core retains privileged interrupt and memory-mapping primitives; the driver broker grants narrow MMIO, IRQ, and DMA capabilities. DMA isolation requires configured IOMMU mappings.
UEFI boot drivers do not replace runtime storage, networking, USB, or GPU drivers after the OS takes over. Existing Linux/Windows drivers require porting or a guest path. A basic framebuffer can display the first prompt; accelerated AI, games, and XR need a separate driver effort.
BEFORE YOU SWITCH
A working recovery path
belongs in every build.
Keep your current working environment and backups while exploring NIX. The hardware roadmap will define what has been validated. Broad support comes from repeatable tests on named devices, one profile at a time.
Follow the build plan ↗CONTINUE EXPLORINGArchitecture