Feb. 6, 2026 – M5Stack, a global leader in modular IoT and embedded development platforms, today announced the release of AI Pyramid series, comprising two models: AI Pyramid and AI Pyramid-Pro.
AI Pyramid is a pyramid-shaped, high-performance AI PC for local AI inference and edge computing. Powered by the Axera AX8850 SoC with an 8-core Cortex-A55 CPU and 24 TOPS INT8 NPU, it efficiently handles workloads such as real-time computer vision, multimodal interaction, and on-device large model inference, while providing robust video processing and flexible connectivity.
Targeting AIPC, edge intelligent terminals, and smart interactive devices, AI Pyramid delivers stable and reliable performance for fully localized AI applications while getting rid of reliance on cloud services.
Key Features
Built for Local AI and Edge Computing
AI Pyramid runs AI inference entirely on-device, ensuring low latency, data privacy, and reliable offline operation. Its flexible architecture supports deployment in smart terminals, interactive devices, and edge environments where consistent performance is essential.
On-Device AI Performance & Multimodal Parallelism
Equipped with a 24 TOPS INT8 NPU, AI Pyramid delivers powerful on-device AI compute for vision, speech, and language tasks in parallel. Its heterogeneous architecture enables developers to deploy and scale mainstream AI models—including Transformers and LLMs—efficiently from prototype to production.
Hardware-Accelerated AI Video Processing
AI Pyramid’s hardware-accelerated video engine, combined with 4GB LPDDR4x memory (8GB for AI Pyramid-Pro), supports multi-stream video processing. It can decode up to 16 channels of 1080p video in parallel while running object detection, face recognition, or multimodal analytics on each stream, ensuring low latency, reliable local processing, and on-device AI acceleration.
Flexible Connectivity and Expansion
For connectivity and expansion, AI Pyramid features HD multimedia interfaces (1× input + 1× output for AI Pyramid-Pro), dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, and provides both USB 3.0 and USB Type-C interfaces, offering excellent flexibility for display output, networking, and peripheral expansion.
Detailed Specs
Endless Possibility
With its strong on-device AI computing capability and open, developer-friendly ecosystem, AI Pyramid is well suited for AIPC and edge intelligent terminals. It can be deployed as a smart interactive device, enabling applications such as smart home control (Home Assistant integration), on-device AIGC, voice cloning, and meeting transcription, as well as serving as an AI visual gateway, a local AI photo management platform (Immich), or an AI smart security system (Frigate).
By combining flexible hardware design with reliable on-device AI performance, AI Pyramid provides a solid foundation for developers and makers to build scalable, privacy-preserving AI applications across both desktop and edge environments. Its official launch marks the beginning of new community-driven innovations and the dawn of a new edge AI era.
Jan. 23, 2026 – M5Stack, a global leader in modular IoT and embedded development platforms, today announced the launch of StickS3, the latest addition to its signature Stick series.
Built for developers and makers, StickS3 is a compact, high-performance programmable controller designed for remote control and IoT applications. Powered by the ESP32-S3-PICO-1-N8R8, it delivers enhanced performance and optimized interaction capabilities, making it well suited for smart devices and a wide range of IoT development scenarios.
To enable these capabilities, StickS3 introduces a series of meaningful hardware and capability upgrades:
Key Features
Upgraded Core
Powered by ESP32-S3-PICO-1-N8R8, StickS3 ensures higher processing performance, USB-OTG support, Bluetooth LE 5, and improved suitability for AI and edge computing applications, compared with the ESP32-PICO-V3-02 used in StickC-Plus2.
Enhanced Audio
StickS3 upgrades its audio system with an ES8311 mono audio codec, a MEMS microphone, and an onboard speaker, enabling true audio input and output for voice interaction and audio playback.
Extended Battery Life
StickS3 is equipped with a 250 mAh internal battery, providing stable power support for extended interactive use cases.
Expanded Memory
StickS3 comes with 8 MB Flash and 8 MB PSRAM, providing significantly expanded program storage and runtime memory.
Enhanced Expansion Options
StickS3 features the newly added Hat2-Bus (2.54-16P), giving access to more GPIO and communication resources, along with an integrated IR receiver for infrared control.
Detailed Specification
Development Potential
Beyond the hardware upgrades, the real strength of the Stick series lies in its development ecosystem and community creativity. With its compact form factor and ease of use, the Stick Series has become a signature product line within the M5Stack family, offering rich development potential and a wide range of use cases—especially for beginners.
Taking StickC-Plus2 as an example, the community has built a diverse collection of projects and custom firmware around it. Thanks to its portable design, it has been widely adopted for wearable and handheld applications, enabling creators to turn it into anything from a smartwatch to a security-testing tool.
Now, with the release of StickS3, a more powerful and highly integrated evolution of the series, it’s time to unlock even greater possibilities—driven by both the enhanced hardware and the passionate community behind Stick.
Jan.2026, M5Stack officially announced its collaboration with SquareLine Vision, a next-generation UI design platform built to simplify and accelerate graphical interface development for embedded systems. As part of this partnership, SquareLine Vision has completed device adaptation for selected M5Stack products, enabling developers to design, preview, and deploy UIs more efficiently.
With this integration, M5Stack Core2 and Tab5 are now fully supported in SquareLine Vision v1.2.1, allowing users to directly select these devices when designing interfaces. This marks an important step toward lowering the barrier to embedded UI development and streamlining the workflow from design to deployment.
Experience Effortless UI Development with SquareLine Vision
SquareLine Vision provides a visual, drag-and-drop environment for creating user interfaces quickly and easily. Developers can focus on layout, interaction, and user experience while SquareLine Vision generates production-ready code behind the scenes. This approach helps shorten development cycles and makes UI iteration faster and more intuitive.
Seamless Hardware Integration for Further Development
The completed integration ensures that UI designs created in SquareLine Vision can be deployed seamlessly on M5Stack devices, with display resolution, touch input, and hardware characteristics already accounted for. This reduces the burden of hardware–software integration and allows developers to focus on further development.
Supported devices include:
Core2 — a second-generation M5Stack Core controller featuring an ESP32-D0WDQ6-V3 dual-core LX6 CPU (up to 240 MHz), 16 MB Flash, 8 MB PSRAM, Wi-Fi connectivity, and a 2.0-inch capacitive touch screen, with programming supported via USB Type-C.
Tab5 — a highly expandable, portable smart IoT terminal designed for developers, integrating a dual-core architecture and rich hardware resources. It is built around the ESP32-P4 SoC based on the RISC-V architecture, featuring 16MB Flash and 32MB PSRAM for high-performance application development.
By combining M5Stack’s modular hardware ecosystem with SquareLine Vision’s effortless UI design workflow, developers can now move from concept to functional interface with greater speed, clarity, and confidence.
About M5Stack
M5Stack is a leading provider of modular, open-source IoT development solutions. Our stackable hardware and intuitive programming platform empower developers and businesses to accelerate innovation and rapidly prototype solutions for IIoT, home automation, smart retail, and STEM education.
About SquareLine Vision
SquareLine is a next generation UI editor for individuals and professionals to design and develop beautiful UIs for your embedded devices quickly and easily. Offering a unique cross-platform software, which enables design and implementation in one tool.
