A compact circuit board with a glowing language model glyph, representing local edge AI inference.

Optimizing Small Language Models for Local Edge Inference: Quantization, Pruning, and Runtime Tuning

A field guide to running small language models locally on CPUs, NPUs, and modest GPUs. Covers INT4/INT8 quantization, structured and unstructured pruning, KV-cache tuning, batching, and how to measure what actually matters.

September 2, 2026 · 11 min · 2146 words · martinuke0
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