Cool, haven't thought about that. I probably need to get an FPGA. Really liked the book "The Elements of Computing Systems" [1][2] in which one builds a computer from NAND gates upwards, a compiler, vm and finally a simple OS with applications. The hardware part of the course seems to be on coursera now as well. [3]

[1] https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/elements-computing-systems

[2] http://www.nand2tetris.org/

[3] https://www.coursera.org/learn/build-a-computer