February 19, 2026 -
The new MCU includes a dedicated neural processor and phase-change memory to boost performance in X-in-1 architectures.
By Jake Hertz, allaboutcircuits.com
STMicroelectronics recently introduced its Stellar P3E MCU. The newest member of the Stellar P automotive MCU family, P3E, uniquely integrates a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU) alongside high-performance real-time control cores to bring AI acceleration to X-in-1 electronic control units (ECUs).
AI Acceleration at the MCU Level
One of ST’s major selling points with the Stellar P3E is its Neural-ART Accelerator, an on-chip neural processing unit optimized for real-time inference. In contrast to DSP-based implementations that repurpose general-purpose compute cores for AI tasks, the Neural-ART block uses a data-flow architecture designed to minimize memory movement and reduce energy per inference.
According to ST, the accelerator can deliver up to 30 times greater AI efficiency than running neural models on traditional MCU cores, while achieving microsecond-level inference latency.