Processor Memory

[klindup]

A question Bob.  People often say things like there is more computer power in a mobile phone than in the Apollo 11 lunar lander.  I have often wandered about the Canon Digic processors.  Do you have any idea of how much memory is contained in the processor and what speed the processor operates at?
Ken

[Bob Atkins]

I don't think Canon have ever revealed the technical specs of their DIGIC processors. Typically they just say it's "X times faster" than the previous one! I know the Digic 5+ was 17x faster than the Digic 4, but I've not seen any numbers quoted for the 5+ to the 6.

It's not just the processor clock speed, it's also the design of the dedicated GPU (graphics processor unit) that contributes to the overall speed of the camera. Since power consumption is a big factor in camera design, state of the art ultra fast processors probably aren't used since power consumption goes up with speed. There's probably some tradeoff of power vs. speed.

As for memory, I don't know how much they have in the camera. Again it's something that Canon don't talk about. I'd guess that details of the Digic processor would be something that Canon don't want other companies to learn from.

I think it is known that the Digic is an ARM (Advanced RISC Machines) device (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture)

[klindup]

I can understand why Canon would keep their architecture secret. RISC processors are by their very nature faster than the older conventional architectures with a larger instruction set.  I guess that designing a processor designed to one job leads to more efficiency than a general purpose processor.
Ken

[Bob Atkins]

Most of what is known about the Digic processors probably comes from the reverse engineering of the Canon firmware by the CHDK and MagicLantern groups. That's all open source. Chipworks has done some reverse engineering the hardware but if you want the details it will cost you a lot of money!

From chipworks - "Canon DIGIC III Image Processor (CK4-1107) - Functional Analysis Report  FAR-0609-803 - USD 16,500.00"   

Here are a few links

http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Register_Map

https://chipworks.secure.force.com/catalog/ProductDetails?sku=CAN-CH4-6501&viewState=DetailView&cartID=&g=&parentCategory=&navigationStr=CatalogSearchInc&searchText=canon%20digic

https://chipworks.secure.force.com/catalog/ProductDetails?sku=CAN-CK4-1107&viewState=DetailView&cartID=&g=&parentCategory=&navigationStr=CatalogSearchInc&searchText=canon%20digic