ST Debuts Automotive MCU with Integrated AI Engines

STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, has announced the Stellar P3E , the first automotive microcontroller (MCU) to integrate an embedded AI accelerator for in-vehicle edge intelligence . Designed for next-generation software-defined vehicles (SDVs), the Stellar P3E’s X-in-1 architecture simplifies the multi-function integration of multiple electronic control units (ECUs), reducing system cost, weight, and complexity.

“The Stellar P3E sets a new standard for automotive electrification by integrating high-performance real-time control and edge AI in a single device, enabling the highest automotive safety levels on a single chip,” said Luca Rodeschini, Group Vice President and General Manager of STMicroelectronics’ General Purpose and Automotive Microcontroller Division. “With increased processing power, AI acceleration, large expandable memory, rich analog functions, smart sensing capabilities, and intelligent power management, it enables emerging applications such as virtual sensors, giving carmakers a powerful tool to create safer, more efficient, and more responsive driving experiences.”

The Stellar P3E ‘s most notable feature is its built-in Neural-ART accelerator™, which boosts AI efficiency in real time, making it the first MCU to feature an embedded neural network accelerator for the automotive industry. By combining a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU), an advanced dataflow architecture for AI workloads, and rich sensing capabilities, the P3E enables smart sensing and opens up new applications such as virtual sensors.

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The Stellar P3E processes inferences in microseconds, making it up to 30 times more efficient than traditional microcontroller core processors. This enables always-on, low-power artificial intelligence (AI) that supports real-time functions like predictive maintenance and smart sensing, providing numerous benefits to a wide range of applications. These features improve efficiency by reducing charging times for electric vehicles, and also help rapidly add new features in the factory and in the field. Automakers can use diverse AI models to introduce new features and add more intuitive behaviors, minimizing sensors, modules, wiring, and integration efforts.

As the automotive industry transitions to software-defined vehicles (SDV), the Stellar P3E’s built-in xMemory delivers the scalability and flexibility essential for its adoption. xMemory is ST’s proprietary non-volatile memory, based on phase-change memory (PCM) , which is inherently large and flexible. It offers twice the density of conventional built-in Flash memory and is qualified for automotive environments. This scalable memory solution allows software storage to be dynamically expanded, enabling new features and software updates without the need for hardware redesign.

Stellar P3E is fully supported by the comprehensive edge AI ecosystem, the ST Edge AI Suite , which provides data scientists and embedded engineers with comprehensive support, from dataset creation to device deployment. As part of the ST Edge AI Suite, the NanoEdge AI Studio tool is now available for the entire Stellar MCU family. Additionally, Stellar P3E is already integrated into Stellar Studio , ST‘s all-in-one development environment for automotive engineers. These capabilities further strengthen a robust hardware and software development ecosystem that makes it easy to deploy advanced edge AI solutions in demanding automotive environments.

SOURCE: PRTimes