Electronic Design Weekly: June 15-19, 2026
In This Issue
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Editorial: Shrinking AI PCs
Artificial intelligence (AI) can be useful in many applications, but the amount of performance needed varies significantly. In many cases a neural processing unit (NPU) is worth the investment. In larger PCs, a GPU or NPU card can deliver high-performance AI compute. However, a more compact solution might be to add an NPU via an M.2 slot if one is available.
Turning to an AI PC allows a system to employ AI acceleration that’s part of the processor package. This is the typical approach when using the compact, Next Unit of Computing (NUC) form factor. NUCs tend to have limited expansion options, often limited to M.2 or DRAM sockets, but this is often sufficient for regular PC users as well as many embedded applications. I switched from a tower to an ASUS NUC after 10 years of use.
Continue reading this editorial.
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.
Editor's Weekly Picks
We hope you enjoy the articles on ElectronicDesign, but there's a lot going on and we can't cover everything. In this section, our editors highlight articles they found this week that you might be interested in as well.
- Bill Wong
- Andy Turudic
Bill's Picks of the Week
My editorial this week is on AI but here I am taking a look at more of the basics when it comes to engineering.
- Pluggable Terminal Blocks: Simple and Secure @ Machine Design
Pluggable terminal blocks combine fixed and detachable connection elements to simplify wiring changes. Using Altech components as an example, this article examines how terminal block configuration influences functionality. - Take our quiz: Cobot, SCARA or Delta robot? @ Control Design
Does each phrase best describe a collaborative robot, a selective compliance assembly robot arm (SCARA) robot or a Delta robot? - Are 3D-Printed Patterns the Secret to Faster Casting? @ American Machinist
The time consumed by transferring a design to a pattern, then to a mold, to produce a part can be made more efficient - even optimized - with additive manufacturing offering more design flexibility. - Five Design Tradeoffs When Using Additive Manufacturing for Production @ Machine Design
Geometry freedom, cost and consistency define where additive succeeds or fails in production use.
Cabe's Picks of the Week
- I’m surrounded by 50 year old gear. The problems with living in a building built in the 70s. I want smart-home features. The “7 IoT Trends Shaping Smart Homes and Buildings in 2026” is more like a “I wish” list. I think the money is in retrofitting. @Microwaves&RF
- Actually, see their whole Special Report: The Smarter Smart Home. I want it all. @Microwaves&RF
- As the owner of many CNC machines in different states of repair, I can’t help but wish I had a predictive maintenance system running. See all it in “How to Get Predictive Maintenance Off the Ground.” @AutomationWorld
You know, these stories are a real wake up call. These systems don’t come to the more budget concerned masses. We need nice things too. Instead of us having to hodge-podge repair everything, we could keep pace and move like larger companies. I think there is huge potential in making the home machinist, home engineer competitive in their chosen industries. The home-kaizen. A dream in the making. 😊
Andy's Picks from Around the Web
SpaceX to acquire Cursor for $60B in stock, days after blockbuster IPO. Link
EV sales just hit their best month since federal tax credits ended. Link
Google CEO Humiliated by Graduating Stanford Students as They Walk Out of His Speech in Protest. Link
[Data center developer games farmland ownership to have access to Colorado River water for cooling your AI cat video generation.]. Link
Global EV sales hit 1.8 million in May as Europe races ahead. Link
Click here to see Andy's full list of the latest articles and news.
[Requests for now-obsoleted carriers, battleships, fighter planes, choppers, tanks, and missiles means that taxpayers and Social Security recipients need a Congressional review of US defense budget bloatware:] Ukrainian interceptor drones are now shooting down Russian Shahed attack UAVs autonomously, utilizing a newly combat-tested AI technology that automates 95 percent of the interception process from launch to impact. Link
3D Prints in Seconds - NOW OPEN SOURCE - Computed Axial Lithography. Video
Amazon data centers used 2.5bn gallons of water in 2025. Link
Zuckerberg says Meta made 'mistakes' in AI workforce shift. Link
Anthropic CEO Floats Tax on AI Firms to Fund Universal Income. Link
China targets 40% penetration for new-energy heavy trucks by 2030. Link
KPMG's AI report becomes an accidental demo of AI hallucinations. Link
Solar generates more energy than coal in US for 1st time. Link
A $200 ChatGPT subscription could cost OpenAI $14,000 if you actually used it to its full potential. Link
The Mother of All Deep Space Radio Telescopes Is Going Up in the Nevada Desert. Link
SpaceX's president is floating a Tesla merger as the company begins trading. Link
ChatGPT’s market share slips below 50% for first time. Link
Starfall - SpaceX's Surprise New Spacecraft. Video
GM’s Secret "LMR" Battery Drops American EV Battery Prices by 40%. Video
CATL Reveals Battery With Gasoline-Level Energy Density. Video
Tesla's Fully Dry 4680 -- Too little too late? Video
DIY Direct-Write Lithography System for Semiconductor Patterning. Video
We're in the second quarter of the year and there's already been more than 150,000 layoffs across the tech industry. Link
Trump admin abandons fight against wind energy as clean energy output surges. Link
Only 16 percent of Americans think AI will have a positive impact on society, a new study shows. Link
Andy's Video of the Week
Scott Manley extracts some interesting info on a new re-entry vehicle, "Starfall", via SpaceX's latest FAA environmental assessment and FCC licensing. Scott's an avid Kerbal Space Program enthusiast and has ginned up some nice animations to go with his analysis.
Some hand-drawn goodness for the week.
What did you also want to do besides engineering? Me, it was being a mechanic. Maybe I should become one anyway.
Read all about the inspiration for this one here.
Or see my whole Engineering on Friday cartoon catalog here.
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 OpenAI.
Visit the archive of andyT's prior Inventors cartoons, here
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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.
James Morra
Senior Editor
James Morra is the senior editor for Electronic Design, covering the semiconductor industry and new technology trends, with a focus on power electronics and power management. He also reports on the business behind electrical engineering, including the electronics supply chain. He joined Electronic Design in 2015 and is based in Chicago, Illinois.
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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