Electronic Design Weekly: June 22-26, 2026
In This Issue
- Editorial: The Real Cost of Generative AI
- Featured Content
- New Products
- Edge Computing using AI
- Multimedia on ElectronicDesign
- Editor's Choice: From the ElectronicDesign Archives
- Editor's Weekly Picks
- Illustrated Engineering
- Electronic Design Week Word of the Week
- New in Electronic Design's Member Library
- More Electronic Design Weekly
Welcome to Electronic Design's weekly publication where you can find the latest articles, videos, and podcasts. Think of it as Electronic Design magazine where you can read about the latest technologies and products.
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Editorial: The Real Cost of Generative AI
Generative and agentic AI are mainstream these days. Many solutions are available for free but with limits, while paid access typically provides additional functionality, more performance or newer, more sophisticated models. Adding third-party services to the mix via Model Context Protocol (MCP) support may also incur usage costs, so figuring out what you're spending in a month can be a challenge.
One way companies charge for AI consumption is by the number of tokens used. Tokens can be whole or partial words, punctuation, and even spaces. Pricing tends to be different for input (the prompt) and output tokens; it's based on the model employed. Costs are often specified in millions of tokens. This is assuming text in and text out, which is just one way to work with chatbots. Adding images, videos, and other data just increases the complexity.
Continue reading this editorial.
Edge Computing Using AI
A lot of talk these days is about chatbots and generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the cloud. GenAI isn't the only use of AI, and embedded systems are taking advantage of embedded AI hardware to do things like identify objects in a video feed. Here are some articles that take a closer look at options available to embedded engineers.
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 This Week
Vision language models (VLM) are one form of generative AI that this issue of Electronic Design Weekly is targeting. This podcast from Vision Systems Design takes a closer look at VLMs.
Over on Power and Motion, Sara Jensen highlights the latest on humaniod robots utilizing generative AI. This is definitely worth a quick view to get some insights into the Automate conference.
Andy's Picks from Around the Web
Two new Curb Charger versions debut at Power2Drive Munich. Link
Yann LeCun says xAI is "kind of a failure" – and the whole AI industry might be headed for a reset. Link
Ukraine is showing the West why cheap sensors could be key to defending the skies in future wars. Link
California’s grid batteries just shoved 12,000 megawatts onto the system at once, covering 44% of the whole state at the exact hour it usually strains. Link
Slate's Website Leak Confirms Electric Truck Pricing [$24,950]. Link
Norway Bans AI in Elementary Schools. Link
Click here to see Andy's full list of the latest articles and news.
Helion secures world’s first regulatory licenses for fusion power plant being built in Washington state. Link
We Saw What AI Data Centers Don't Want You to See. Video
Microsoft and Chevron plan one of the largest gas-powered data center projects in US. Link
They Lied About the SpaceX IPO. Video
OpenAI’s $1 Trillion Bullsh*t Is Falling Apart [this one's a bit of a rant, but has interesting facts in it]. Video
Startup uses tech to id species, locate and pierce the brain, to humanely kill fish without their suffocation or thrashing. [In Asian cultures, they just buy them live and chop the head off for soup]. Link
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
I pitched illustrating my book. This is one of the cartoons that was supposed to be in it.
Read about what happened and my inspiration for this one here. I also share a cut project from the book as a tutorial video. It's a must watch.
Or see my whole Engineering on Friday cartoon catalog here.
New in Electronic Design's Member Library
Are you an Electronic Design member? It’s free and you get access to content like our latest e-books and editorial webinars. You can also provide feedback about articles.
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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