Clock speed? of canon DSLR's

[ron chappel]

Does canon quote processor speed for their digital cameras?I don't even know if i'm asking the question right because 'digic' is multithreaded (?) right?I just got to thinking that a camera processes images pretty fast and doesn't seem to need cooling fans etc.

[jfretless]

...I can see it now...

overclockedcanons.com

(not a real link)


John

[Pekka]

1D Mark II main CPU is a 32 MHz, 32-bit RISC processor, and extra AF tasks are driven by 33 MHz, 32-bit RISC CPU (for AF detection and auto AF point selection). RISC (Reduced Instruction Set ) CPU is about the same technology as dedicated DSP (Digital Signal Processor) chip which means it it designed to do only certain very specific tasks which makes it simple and very fast.

[ron chappel]

Interesting
do you think they use generic,off the shelf cpu's and other chips?

[pradeep1]

Interesting
do you think they use generic,off the shelf cpu's and other chips?

:D Yes, they use the new Pentium 4 3.4 GHz "Extreme Edition" CPU with Hyperthreading. It can be overclocked by going to this site and downloading some hack software.

www.overclockers.com /canon/digital/cpu_overclock.html

but make sure to use some good Arctic Silver micronized silver thermal grease and a Zalman copper flower heatsink with a super quiet 80 mm fan.

Just kidding....Canon uses proprietary CPUs that they developed.

[blackviolet]

better still... can you imagine the case mods: a nice mkII in a clear lexan case with glowing cold cathodes and big white L glass?!!!

[timmyquest]

And i thought i was the only nerd here lol

[ron chappel]

LOL
Computer "style" has got to be the worst i've ever seen :lol: :lol: :lol:

[vvizard]

Does canon quote processor speed for their digital cameras?I don't even know if i'm asking the question right because 'digic' is multithreaded (?) right?I just got to thinking that a camera processes images pretty fast and doesn't seem to need cooling fans etc.

I have been wondering about this myself, and I can't see why you don't know if the question is right or not? Multithreaded or not, it needs processing power, but a multithreaded OS doesn't need several CPU's if that's what you wondered about?

When you hear the "69 Megapixels per second" headline for the MKII, one might be tempted to think there where P4's at several gigahertz with hyperthreading in there. The price of these things might even make us suspect them beeing SMP-units ;) But as Pekka says, it's not very likely. There's no fans in theese cams, and the cpu's probably need to be physical small.. That's a very bad combination for driving CPU-speeds up to the insane levels.

Another argument is that insane levels of CPU-speeds won't be needed in a camera. working with 6MP images in photoshop under Windows needs large amounts of cpu/ram, but a camera-OS is optimized for what it should be doing, and all other bloat is ripped out. They're no where as complicated as Windows. They don't need photoshop to work with pictures, the OS does it itself. So the need for Megahertz probably isn't big. A simple example is the Sony Playstation2. It plays many of the same games you can play on Windows, yet it only got 32MB RAM, cause the OS is designed specifically for loading/playing games, and all other bloat is gone. Now try equipping a windows-machine with the same hardware as the Playstation, and play the same games ;)

[theoldmoose]

Interesting
do you think they use generic,off the shelf cpu's and other chips?

Not exactly, but you might be surprised to learn that the main processor instruction set in the 10D and 300D is '386 compatible, and runs an embedded version of DOS called DataLight. In fact, there are some programs floating around (Linux-based, if I recall) that will let you 'mount' the camera via the USB cable as a series of DOS-based drive letters, and let you download and examine the executable files that are stored in the camera's internal FLASH.

The Canon Digic processor(s) though, are specialized proprietary image processor(s) -- probably SIMD (single instruction, multiple data) arrays.

In the 1990's, I worked at a machine vision company that used a 25 MHz RISC-based 32-bit processor (the Intel i960CA), driving a 128-bit wide SIMD array of LSI 10K gate array processors, to produce 500 MPixels/sec of grayscale binary morphology. The hardware to do it at the time took up the better part of two VME bus cards, but all that could be shrunk into a couple of chips these days, with similar reductions in power requirements.

And technically, RISC is not the same as DSP, nor SIMD, for that matter, although the distinctions can get hazy, depending on the application at hand, mainly because you can sometimes emulate one or the other of the technologies with one of the other ones (usually not very efficiently).

[vvizard]

[quote=ron chappel]Interesting
In fact, there are some programs floating around (Linux-based, if I recall) that will let you 'mount' the camera via the USB cable as a series of DOS-based drive letters, and let you download and examine the executable files that are stored in the camera's internal FLASH.


=D Do you have any information about the name of such program(s)? I would like trying it out simply for the fun of it :)

[theoldmoose]

Search the dpreview forums for Linux and 300D (or Digital Rebel). It's sure to turn up the mention. May have also been discussed here, as well.

Have fun.

[Guillermo Freige]

Check this one:
http://www.alexbernstein.com/wiki/HomePage

The main processor used in 10D and 300D is a custom NEC chip with NEC V30 emulation (V30 is a x86 clone)

[GenEOS]

You guys have, seriously, gone way off the deep end.

[timmyquest]

LOL
Computer "style" has got to be the worst i've ever seen :lol: :lol: :lol:

Take a look at the japanese car scene

In your defence, most of them are the same kids.
:roll:

[Pekka]

Interesting
do you think they use generic,off the shelf cpu's and other chips?

Must be "Made for Canon" (most likely by some Japanese company) because Canon has mentioned that evrything in their cameras is now done with "in house" parts, inventions and staff.

RAM is DDR SDRAM, those must be ECC and (selected) tested chips.