I think you are looking at the wrong journal. Circuits & Systems Magazine is free for members of the Circuits & Systems Society, which costs $14.50 in addition to standard membership. This interesting material is in the Transactions on Circuits and Systems (I & II) which would be $12 on top of that.
The general rule is that societies are relatively cheap to join, and necessary to get access to the specialised material at low cost. The non-society member price for a publication is usually the same as society+publication, so just join the society…
I personally think the IEEE transactions are all a bargain in any fields of interest, but in the ‘old days’ of only printed journals they soon filled a huge space. The online access (Explore) is great as you can search and access all past editions of the journals.
Phil.