Gasgoo Munich-SemiDrive has officially open-sourced its D9-MAX software SDK. Built on an automotive-grade heterogeneous single-chip base, the SDK primarily targets the "cerebellum" scenarios of embodied intelligence — aiming to deliver foundational computing power and software support for physical AI and robotics R&D.
Image source: SemiDrive
To address the pain points of traditional multi-board architectures, the D9-MAX chip fuses perception, motion control, and safety island functions onto a single die. Leveraging ARM DynamIQ Shared Unit technology, it partitions its 12-core CPU into two physically independent clusters — an 8-core and a 4-core — achieving physical hard isolation between motion control and interactive tasks. Additionally, the chip integrates 8MB of high-speed static SRAM on-chip for cross-domain communication. It natively supports dual-gigabit TSN Ethernet, 12 CAN-FD, and 16 UART/RS485 interfaces, while routing out PCIe 3.0 x2 expansion channels and supporting an industrial-wide temperature range from -40°C to 105°C.
Image source: SemiDrive
In engineering tests, the Linux real-time protocol stack built on this SDK works out of the box. Running in a bare-metal environment on a single A55 core, the D9-MAX stably drives a 6-axis motion control card at an ultra-high-frequency control cycle of 125μs — with zero step loss or frame drops. Meanwhile, the chip's three pairs of lock-step Cortex-R5F safety islands deliver a 25ns extreme interrupt response. Paired with a hardware HSM, this meets functional safety ASIL-B and Evita Full stack certifications.
The newly open-sourced code is hosted on Gitee under multi-repository collaborative management. The SDK includes an automotive-grade bootloader, a kernel based on Linux 6.12 LTS with the PREEMPT_RT real-time patch integrated, and a dual-file-system solution featuring Ubuntu 26.04 and Buildroot 2502. Beyond that, the release covers real-time core firmware assets and a dedicated code zone that integrates the IgH EtherCAT real-time master protocol stack, chip-level peripheral drivers, and an on-chip SRAM lock-free IPC communication library.
SemiDrive's D9 series chips are already in mass production at leading humanoid robot manufacturers. In the smart vehicle sector, cumulative shipments of SemiDrive's full automotive-grade chip lineup have topped 15 million units — reaching over 90% of domestic OEMs and several major international automakers.
