STMicroelectronics LSM9DS0 and LSM303D 9-axis IMU sensors
A 9-axis inertial measurement unit from STMicroelectronics combining a 3-axis accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer in a single I2C/SPI chip, popular in hobbyist boards (Adafruit, SparkFun, Pololu) and embedded motion-tracking projects in the mid-2010s. The same code also handles the related LSM303D accelerometer/magnetometer combo used in some laptops and tablets.
recommendation
Worth keeping but flagging as legacy hardware: ST and Digi-Key both list the LSM9DS0 as obsolete and out of production, so few new designs will use it, but plenty of existing boards and devices in the field still rely on it. The code is still receiving routine maintenance touches in mainline (most recently early 2025) and there are no removal patches in flight, so dropping it would only hurt existing users without saving meaningful effort.
repository signals
sources
- cateee.net
CONFIG_IIO_ST_LSM9DS0 is still present in current kernels through 7.0-rc+HEAD, so the driver remains upstream-supported.
- cateee.net
The driver still binds real IDs including i2c "lsm9ds0", OF compatible "st,lsm9ds0-imu", and also "lsm303d" / ACPI ACCL0001.
- st.com
ST marks LSM9DS0 as "Obsolete" and "Out of Production".
- digikey.com
A major distributor lists LSM9DS0TR as obsolete and no longer manufactured.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Real driver directory: Kconfig/module entry points and I2C/SPI bus glue plus probe core were confirmed locally via shell file reads. Upstream activity was checked first via local shell `git -c safe.directory=... log` on this directory because lore MCP resources were unavailable and `lei` was not installed; the directory has multiple non-removal touches through 2025-02-24 and no deprecation/removal commits surfaced from local grep over commit subjects. Web search produced LKDDb pages confirming the driver is still in HEAD and still matches concrete device IDs, while ST and DigiKey pages show the silicon is obsolete/out of production. Result: hardware is legacy with likely low new deployment, but upstream maintenance is still active enough that removal/deprecation is premature; keep it, but annotate as legacy/obsolete hardware.