Electronic Design Weekly: Apr. 27-May 1, 2026
Welcome to Electronic Design's weekly publication where you can find the latest articles, videos, and podcasts. Keep checking back as more content is added every day during the week. You can sign up for our daily newsletter to see the latest articles as they're posted. Check out the latest newsletters. You can also check out archived versions of Top Stories of the Week.
Editorial: Advantages, Costs and Perils of Vibe Coding
Though I’ve recommended that you avoid vibe coding for embedded systems, I’ve been using chatbots to help with my programming endeavors and achieved some success. Part of the challenge is in defining vibe coding, and to what degree you might be using it. These days it tends to be all-encompassing to handle setting up a development environment to writing production code. Like the term artificial intelligence (AI), there’s a lot of wiggle room between extremes.
I think more people will be developing applications thanks to AI, but real programmers will still be needed, possibly more than in the past. Projects like the one discussed in “Demonstrating SPARK with a Mars Rover (Part 1): Cyber-Physical Systems” highlight why design is such an important part of the process.
Editor's Choice: From the ElectronicDesign Archives
These articles were chosen by the editors at ElectronicDesign that complement the new articles above. They are included in our regular newsletters.
Bill Wong's Picks of the Week
This week's is a focus on connectivity. Wi-Fi 7 includes features targing IoT devices.
Building Intelligent and Interoperable Smart Homes with Wi-Fi 7
Many households now support more than 50 wireless devices, making it challenging to ensure a consistent user experience. @ Microwaves & RF
This was more of a product announcement but deterministic protocol stacks are important. It is not just the underlying protocol like time sensitive networking (TSN) that matters.
WolfSSL introduces deterministic TCP/IP stack for embedded and safety-critical systems
wolfIP allocates memory for socket tables and RX/TX packet buffers at build time, allowing engineers to define system limits and resource usage before deployment. @ Military+Aeorspace Electronics
Click to see more recommendations
While this article focuses on manufacturing jobs, most of the tips are applicable to any technical job including engineering and programming.
A Practical Guide to Recruiting in Manufacturing
We've seen so much change in how employers hire talent that outdated practices are quickly becoming a hidden risk. @ IndustryWeek
This ia a nice video/article series on security issues.
Proving Control Over AI: Tim Freestone on Governance Gaps and the Path Forward
Drawing on Kiteworks research, Tim Freestone warns that organizations racing to adopt agentic AI without proper governance and control are exposing themselves to significant security and compliance risks. @ Security Infowatch.com
Andy's Picks From Around the Web
Click here to see Andy's full list of the latest articles and news.
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OpenAI reportedly missed revenue targets. Shares of Oracle and these chip stocks are falling. Link
‘The cost of compute is far beyond the costs of the employees’: Nvidia executive says right now AI is more expensive than paying human workers. Link
Volkswagen ID. Polo revealed: First look at new electric VW [An EV that, refreshingly, looks like a normal car and allegedly has physical buttons for controls vs Musk's game of finger-darts on a center screen on uneven roads]. Link
Hood River [Oregon] issues temporary pause on data center construction. Link
Snap's Evan Spiegel warns tech leaders are underestimating a coming backlash against AI. Link
New Citroen 2CV: £13k electric city car to lean on brand nostalgia. Link
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Sick of AI generated images? I am. Here is my latest hand-drawn cartoon for “Engineering on Friday.”
We all have them. I explore ideas not made. Read what I did about it. And about how I tried some new drawing techniques.
- Cabe
See the rest of my cartoons in the Engineering on Friday comic gallery.
We have a pretty healthy backlog of already created Inventors humor, but if you have an idea/concept for a cartoon, contact Andy by email with "toon idea" in the subject line and send a brief paragraph or so of the concept/joke. If used, we'll credit you by first name and last initial, though please note that Andy will be signing the cartoon - it's not the idea, it's the execution where all the work is. The cartoons are Andy's originals, the extensively and heavily prompted illustration is assisted by Gemini AI.
Visit the archive of andyT's prior Inventors cartoons, here
About the Author
William G. Wong
Senior Content Director - Electronic Design and Microwaves & RF
I am Editor of Electronic Design focusing on embedded, software, and systems. As Senior Content Director, I also manage Microwaves & RF and I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, programmers, developers and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.
You can send press releases for new products for possible coverage on the website. I am also interested in receiving contributed articles for publishing on our website. Use our template and send to me along with a signed release form.
Check out my blog, AltEmbedded on Electronic Design, as well as his latest articles on this site that are listed below.
You can visit my social media via these links:
- AltEmbedded on Electronic Design
- Bill Wong on Facebook
- @AltEmbedded on Twitter
- Bill Wong on LinkedIn
I earned a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Masters in Computer Science from Rutgers University. I still do a bit of programming using everything from C and C++ to Rust and Ada/SPARK. I do a bit of PHP programming for Drupal websites. I have posted a few Drupal modules.
I still get a hand on software and electronic hardware. Some of this can be found on our Kit Close-Up video series. You can also see me on many of our TechXchange Talk videos. I am interested in a range of projects from robotics to artificial intelligence.
Roger Engelke Jr.
Managing Editor - Electronic Design and Microwaves & RF
Roger manages the websites and print issues for Electronic Design and Microwaves &RF.
Cabe Atwell
Technology Editor, Electronic Design
Cabe is a Technology Editor for Electronic Design.
Engineer, Machinist, Cartoonist, Maker, Writer. A graduate Electrical Engineer actively plying his expertise in the industry and at his company, Gunhead. When not designing/building, he creates a steady torrent of projects and content in the media world. Many of his projects and articles are online at element14 & SolidSmack, industry-focused work at EETimes & EDN, and offbeat articles at Make Magazine. Currently, you can find him hosting webinars and contributing to Electronic Design and Machine Design.
Cabe is an electrical engineer, design consultant and author with 25 years’ experience. His most recent book is “Essential 555 IC: Design, Configure, and Create Clever Circuits”
Cabe writes the Engineering on Friday blog on Electronic Design.
See Cabe's cartoons & comic strips here.
Andy Turudic
Technology Editor, Electronic Design
Andy Turudic is a Technology Editor for Electronic Design Magazine, primarily covering Analog and Mixed-Signal circuits and devices and also is Editor of ED's bi-weekly Automotive Electronics newsletter.
He holds a Bachelor's in EE from the University of Windsor (Ontario Canada) and has been involved in electronics, semiconductors, and gearhead stuff, for a bit over a half century. Andy also enjoys teaching his engineerlings at Portland Community College as a part-time professor in their EET program.
"AndyT" brings his multidisciplinary engineering experience from companies that include National Semiconductor (now Texas Instruments), Altera (Intel), Agere, Zarlink, TriQuint,(now Qorvo), SW Bell (managing a research team at Bellcore, Bell Labs and Rockwell Science Center), Bell-Northern Research, and Northern Telecom.
After hours, when he's not working on the latest invention to add to his portfolio of 16 issued US patents, or on his DARPA Challenge drone entry, he's lending advice and experience to the electric vehicle conversion community from his mountain lair in the Pacific Northwet[sic].
AndyT's engineering blog, "Nonlinearities," publishes the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month. Andy's OpEd may appear at other times, with fair warning given by the Vu meter pic. His cartoon series, "Inventors", appears each week in Electronic Design Weekly.
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