I think the GP comments wants to say that just soldering the TTL chips w.r.t somebody else's design is not that impressive. I too think so, I have not checked but if I found that the has designed the whole processor (custom op-codes and a whole new implementation of ALU) I would be much more impressed.
According to the website he "built and designed" the computer which I assume includes the instruction set, assembler, etc. I can't find any evidence to the contrary.
It's definitely cool -- not groundbreaking, because after all, people used to do this by hand :) It's a bit like rebuilding classic cars. Its fun to touch the hardware and imagine what Woz may have been thinking when he designed the Apple I 30+ years ago.
It's not quite like rebuilding a classic car. It's more like a high schooler using the school workshop to fabricate car parts and building a car from his own blueprints. Sure, he may have purchased the speedometer and tires, but that doesn't really diminish the accomplishment.
Hopefully he will go on to work on a replacement for computer—car analogies.
