ZED X and ZED X mini Integration with Custom SOC chip(without the CUDA ecosystem)

Hello,

We are currently developing a custom embedded system that interfaces with the StereoLabs one ZED X and one ZED X mini camera via GMSL2, but not using the ZED Link capture card. Instead, we are utilizing our own carrier board equipped with a MAX96712 deserializer, connected to a custom soc platform running Linux(ubuntu 22.04,aarch64), with a custom driver stack managing the GMSL interface.

It needs to be clarified that our requirement only requires obtaining the color maps of Zed x and zed mini, and does not require obtaining the depth map;

Our custom SOC does not support CUDA.

From what I understand, the ZED SDK is designed to work with the ZED Link hardware, which includes drivers and capture logic tightly integrated with the SDK. What’s currently unclear is whether the SDK can function with alternative GMSL hardware setups, like ours, or whether it is dependent on proprietary ZED Link components.

We would appreciate clarification on the following points:

Is it possible to substitute our own MAX96712-based GMSL hardware and drivers for the ZED Link, and still use the ZED SDK with the ZED X camera and ZED mini camera on our custom soc?

Is there a defined driver interface or protocol that the SDK expects, which we can conform to? Or is the integration reliant on proprietary functionality unique to the ZED Link?

If necessary, can StereoLabs provide source code or documentation for the ZED Link drivers or low-level interface, to help us implement SDK compatibility?

Would access to that driver source code require an NDA or other legal agreement?

We’re particularly interested in understanding what the SDK expects from the video stream (e.g., format, metadata), device interfaces (e.g., /dev/videoX), and control paths (e.g., I2C commands). Any documentation, examples, or guidance you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Jumby

26.07.27

Hi @Jumby

Thank you for the detailed description of your setup; it makes the answer much easier to give precisely. Please note that I assume you mean ZED X Mini and not the USB ZED Mini, since only the former uses GMSL2.

Our custom SOC does not support CUDA.

Is it possible to substitute our own MAX96712-based GMSL hardware and drivers for the ZED Link, and still use the ZED SDK with the ZED X camera and ZED mini camera on our custom soc?

No. The ZED SDK requires an NVIDIA GPU with CUDA, and this is not limited to depth computation; the acquisition and image processing path itself runs on the GPU, so restricting your use case to color images does not remove the requirement. You can find the constraint in the Recommended Specifications for ZED SDK. Independently of CUDA, ZED X and ZED X Mini are supported only on NVIDIA Jetson platforms, either with our ZED Link capture cards or on partner boards certified by StereoLabs.

Is there a defined driver interface or protocol that the SDK expects, which we can conform to? Or is the integration reliant on proprietary functionality unique to the ZED Link?

There is no public, portable driver interface that you can conform to. Our ZED X Driver packages contain a kernel module, a device tree blob, the zed_x_daemon service and a patched ISP library; the cameras are then accessed through the NVIDIA camera stack, libargus and the Tegra ISP, not through a generic /dev/videoX contract. The deserializer is indeed a MAX96712 in our ZED Link cards, so the serial link part is familiar to you, but the sensors output raw Bayer data and image quality depends on our ISP tuning applied inside the Tegra stack; that part has no equivalent outside Jetson.

If necessary, can StereoLabs provide source code or documentation for the ZED Link drivers or low-level interface, to help us implement SDK compatibility?

Would access to that driver source code require an NDA or other legal agreement?

The ZED X Driver source code is hosted in a private GitHub repository. Access requires a mutual NDA between your company and StereoLabs; once it is in place, you can be invited to the repository and adapt the driver to your carrier board yourself. Please write to support@stereolabs.com if you want to start that process. We do not validate custom platforms, so I also recommend asking your SoC and board vendor whether they already provide drivers for our GMSL2 cameras.

A supported alternative

If your custom SoC must remain the main compute unit, you can keep the cameras on a fully supported Jetson front end and deliver the images to your SoC over Ethernet, using ZED SDK local streaming or our ZED GStreamer plugins with the included RTSP server. A ZED Box Orin, or a Jetson devkit with a ZED Link capture card, covers this case and requires no CUDA on your side.

Useful links: ZED X, ZED X Mini, ZED X GMSL2 drivers, StereoLabs.