The introduction of inexpensive cylinder pressure sensors provides new opportunities for precise engine control. This paper presents a control strategy of spark advance based upon cylinder pressure of spark ignition engines. A location of peak pressure(LPP) is the major parameter for controlling the spark timing, and also the UP is estimated, using a multi-layer feedforward neural network, which needs only five pressure sensor output voltage samples at -40˚, -20˚, 0˚, 20˚, 40˚ after top dead center. The neural network plays an important role in mitigating the A/D conversion load of an electronic engine controller by increasing the sampling interval from 10 crank angle(CA) to 20˚ CA. A proposed control algorithm does not need a sensor calibration and pegging(bias calculation) procedure because the neural network estimates the UP from the raw sensor output voltage. The estimated LPP can be regarded as a good index for combustion phasing, and can also be used as an MBT control parameter. The feasibility of this methodology is closely examined through steady and transient engine operations to control individual cylinder spark advance. The experimental results have revealed a favorable agreement of individual cylinder optimal combustion phasing.