A newsletter roundup covering system design topics: an explainer on Google's TPU chips including the newly unveiled 8th-generation TPU 8t (training) and TPU 8i (inference) variants announced at Cloud Next '26, a rundown of 9 common types of API testing (smoke, functional, contract, integration, regression, load, stress, security, fuzz), common AI agent production guardrail layers, and a breakdown of forward proxy vs reverse proxy vs API gateway differences.
Table of contents
Architect the Future at AWS re:Invent (Sponsored)HTTP vs HTTPS ExplainedWhat is Google’s TPU?What Makes an FDE Role Credible? (Sponsored)9 Types of API TestingCommon types of AI Agents guardrails on productionForward Proxy, Reverse Proxy, and API Gateway ExplainedQuestions this post answers
What is the difference between Google's TPU 8t and TPU 8i chips?
TPU 8t and TPU 8i are the two variants of Google's 8th-generation Tensor Processing Unit, unveiled at Cloud Next '26. TPU 8t is optimized for training, prioritizing raw throughput, while TPU 8i is optimized for inference, prioritizing latency and chip-to-chip speed. Both share the same Axion CPUs, liquid cooling, and software stack, so code written for one runs on the other. Teams choosing between AI training and inference hardware can track chip announcements like this on daily.dev.
What is the difference between a forward proxy, a reverse proxy, and an API gateway?
A forward proxy sits next to the client and hides the client's identity from the destination server, commonly used by corporate networks for policy enforcement and caching. A reverse proxy sits next to the server, hiding backend infrastructure, terminating TLS, and routing requests, with NGINX and HAProxy as common examples. An API gateway is a reverse proxy that adds auth, rate limiting, API keys, versioning, and request shaping across microservices. Engineers designing service layers can follow proxy and gateway architecture patterns on daily.dev.
What are the main types of API testing used to catch different failures?
Nine common API test types cover different failure modes: smoke tests confirm critical endpoints after deploy, functional tests verify business logic correctness, contract tests protect service agreements, integration tests cover cross-system workflows, regression tests protect existing behavior, load and stress tests check performance limits, security tests cover auth and input handling, and fuzz tests send invalid inputs to surface hidden bugs. Developers building out a testing strategy can compare these API test types on daily.dev.