Bump v0.9.1rc1 release (#1349)

### What this PR does / why we need it?
Bump v0.9.1rc1 release

Closes: https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/1341
Closes: https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/1334

### Does this PR introduce _any_ user-facing change?
No

### How was this patch tested?
CI passed


---------

Signed-off-by: Shanshan Shen <87969357+shen-shanshan@users.noreply.github.com>
Signed-off-by: Yikun Jiang <yikunkero@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: leo-pony <nengjunma@outlook.com>
Co-authored-by: wangxiyuan <wangxiyuan1007@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: leo-pony <nengjunma@outlook.com>
Co-authored-by: shen-shanshan <467638484@qq.com>

docs/source/user_guide/release_notes.md

@@ -1,5 +1,44 @@
 # Release note
 
+## v0.9.1rc1 - 2025.06.22
+
+This is the 1st release candidate of v0.9.1 for vLLM Ascend. Please follow the [official doc](https://vllm-ascend.readthedocs.io/en/) to get started.
+
+### Highlights
+
+- Atlas 300I series is experimental supported in this release. [#1333](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/1333) After careful consideration, this feature **will NOT be included in v0.9.1-dev branch** taking into account the v0.9.1 release quality and the feature rapid iteration to improve performance on Atlas 300I series. We will improve this from 0.9.2rc1 and later.
+- Support EAGLE-3 for speculative decoding. [#1032](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/1032)
+
+### Model
+- MoGE model is now supported. You can try with Pangu Pro Moe-72B on Atlas A2 series and Atlas 300I series. Please follow the official [tutorials](https://vllm-ascend.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorials/multi_npu_moge.html) and [300I series tutorials](https://vllm-ascend.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorials/single_node_300i.html). [#1204](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/1204)
+
+### Core
+- Ascend PyTorch adapter (torch_npu) has been upgraded to `2.5.1.post1.dev20250528`. Don’t forget to update it in your environment. [#1235](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/1235)
+- Support Atlas 300I series container image. You can get it from [quay.io](https://quay.io/repository/vllm/vllm-ascend)
+- Fix token-wise padding mechanism to make multi-card graph mode work. [#1300](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/1300)
+- Upgrade vllm to 0.9.1 [#1165]https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/1165
+
+### Other Improvements
+- Initial support Chunked Prefill for MLA. [#1172](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/1172)
+- An example of best practices to run DeepSeek with ETP has been added. [#1101](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/1101)
+- Performance improvements for DeepSeek using the TorchAir graph. [#1098](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/1098), [#1131](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/1131)
+- Supports the speculative decoding feature with AscendScheduler. [#943](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/943)
+- Improve `VocabParallelEmbedding` custom op performance. It will be enabled in the next release. [#796](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/796)
+- Fixed a device discovery and setup bug when running vLLM Ascend on Ray [#884](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/884)
+- DeepSeek with [MC2](https://www.hiascend.com/document/detail/zh/canncommercial/81RC1/developmentguide/opdevg/ascendcbestP/atlas_ascendc_best_practices_10_0043.html) (Merged Compute and Communication) now works properly. [#1268](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/1268)
+- Fixed log2phy NoneType bug with static EPLB feature. [#1186](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/1186)
+- Improved performance for DeepSeek with DBO enabled. [#997](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/997), [#1135](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/1135)
+- Refactoring AscendFusedMoE [#1229](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/1229)
+- Add initial user stories page (include LLaMA-Factory/TRL/verl/MindIE Turbo/GPUStack) [#1224](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/1224)
+- Add unit test framework [#1201](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/1201)
+
+### Known Issues
+- In some cases, the vLLM process may crash with a **GatherV3** error when **aclgraph** is enabled. We are working on this issue and will fix it in the next release. [#1038](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/issues/1038)
+- Prefix cache feature does not work with the Ascend Scheduler but without chunked prefill enabled. This will be fixed in the next release. [#1350](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/issues/1350)
+
+### Full Changelog
+https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/compare/v0.9.0rc2...v0.9.1rc1
+
 ## v0.9.0rc2 - 2025.06.10
 
 This release contains some quick fixes for v0.9.0rc1. Please use this release instead of v0.9.0rc1.
@@ -21,7 +60,7 @@ This is the 1st release candidate of v0.9.0 for vllm-ascend. Please follow the [
 
 - The performance of multi-step scheduler has been improved. Thanks for the contribution from China Merchants Bank. [#814](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/814)
 - LoRA、Multi-LoRA And Dynamic Serving is supported for V1 Engine now. Thanks for the contribution from China Merchants Bank. [#893](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/893)
-- prefix cache and chunked prefill feature works now [#782](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/782) [#844](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/844)
+- Prefix cache and chunked prefill feature works now [#782](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/782) [#844](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/844)
 - Spec decode and MTP features work with V1 Engine now. [#874](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/874) [#890](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/890)
 - DP feature works with DeepSeek now. [#1012](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/1012)
 - Input embedding feature works with V0 Engine now. [#916](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm-ascend/pull/916)