A neural network unit includes a programmable indicator, a first memory that holds first operands, a second memory that holds second operands, neural processing units (NPU), and activation units. Each NPU has an accumulator and an arithmetic unit that performs a series of multiply operations on pairs of the first and second operands received from the first and second memories to generate a series of products, and a series of addition operations on the series of products to accumulate an accumulated value in the accumulator. The activation units perform activation functions on the accumulated values in the accumulators to generate results. When the indicator specifies the first action, the neural network unit writes to the first memory the results generated by the activation units. When the indicator specifies the second action, the neural network unit writes to the first memory the accumulated values in the accumulators.