$$E_{\text{inference}} = P_{\text{active}} \cdot t_{\text{active}}$$

Equation 5 · Edge AI & Electronics

How Edge AI Electronics and Sensor Systems Actually Work

This equation states an equality: the expressions on both sides have the same value under the article’s assumptions.

Once a signal has been conditioned, digitized and gated by an appropriate wake mechanism, the question becomes what a microcontroller-class processor can actually afford to compute with the power that remains. A useful way to make this concrete rather than hand-wavy is a simple energy identity: the energy an inference actually costs is $E_{\text{inference}} = P_{\text{active}} \cdot t_{\text{active}}$. and the sustainable average power of an always-on system operating at duty cycle d (the fraction of time spent active rather than in a low-power sleep state) is

Meanings in this article

• $E_{\text{inference}}$: the energy an inference actually costs.
• $t_{\text{active}}$: fixed by the model architecture alone.

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