Phi-3 on the edge: Microsoft’s SLM in 2025

Phi-3 is Microsoft Research's family of small language models aimed at the edge, and it competes directly with Llama 3.2, Gemma 2 and Qwen 2.5. Phi-3-mini holds 3.8B parameters and, quantized to 4 bits, fits in about 2 GB, running on a CPU with a neural accelerator, an integrated GPU or an NPU.

December 20, 2025 5 min 293 4.6

Artificial Intelligence

SLMs at the industrial edge: when the small model is better

Small language models have become genuinely useful. Phi-3.5, Gemma 2, and Llama 3.2 fit on modest hardware and solve bounded tasks without reaching the cloud. A look at where they fit on the factory floor and when skipping the large model pays off.

August 1, 2025 6 min 241 4.2