BIONZ is a line of

image processor An image processor, also known as an image processing engine, image processing unit (IPU), or image signal processor (ISP), is a type of media processor or specialized digital signal processor (DSP) used for image processing, in digital cameras ...

s used in

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...

digital cameras. It is currently used in many

Sony α Sony α (the lower case to Greek letter alpha, often transliterated as ''Sony Alpha'') is a digital camera system introduced on 5 June 2006. It uses and expands upon Konica Minolta camera technologies, including the Minolta AF SLR lens mo ...

DSLR A digital single-lens reflex camera (digital SLR or DSLR) is a digital camera that combines the optics and the mechanisms of a single-lens reflex camera with a digital imaging sensor. The reflex design scheme is the primary difference between a ...

and mirrorless cameras. Image processing in the camera converts the raw data from a CCD or CMOS image sensor into the format that is stored on the memory card. This processing is one of the bottlenecks in digital camera speed, so manufacturers put much effort into making, and marketing, the fastest processors for this step that they can. Sony designs the circuitry of the processor in-house, and outsources the manufacturing to semiconductor foundries such as MegaChips and (mostly)

GlobalFoundries GlobalFoundries Inc. (GF or GloFo) is a multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company incorporated in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Malta, New York. Created by the divestiture of the manufacturing arm of AMD, ...

, as they currently do not own any fabrication plant capable of producing a system on a chip (SoC). Sony also sources DRAM chips from various manufacturers namely

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

SK Hynix SK hynix Inc. is a South Korean supplier of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips and flash memory chips. Hynix is the world's second-largest memory chipmaker (after Samsung Electronics) and the world's third-largest semiconductor company. ...

and Micron Technology. BIONZ utilizes two chips in its design. The first chip is an SoC that manages overall functionality of the camera such as SD card storage management, wired connection such as USB and

HDMI High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controlle ...

, and wireless protocols such as

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wav ...

and NFC that are increasingly common on modern

cameras. The BIONZ SoC can be identified by its

part number A part number (often abbreviated PN, P/N, part no., or part #) is an identifier of a particular part design or material used in a particular industry. Its purpose is to simplify reference to that item. A part number unambiguously identifies a part ...

"CXD900xx". The second chip is the ISP (image signal processor). It handles the data directly from the CMOS image sensor, and it is directly responsible for the camera's high-ISO noise characteristics in a low-light environment. The ISP can be identified by the part number "CXD4xxx".

History of BIONZ chips in Sony cameras

BIONZ – MegaChips MA07170 and MA07171

The first camera to officially use a so-called BIONZ processor was the DSLR-A700 in 2007, utilizing the MA07170 chip from a MegaChips (MCL) family of 32-bit RISC processors with MIPS R3000 core. Similar MegaChips processors had been used in the DSLR-A100 (MA07169) as well as in the Konica Minolta 5D (MA07168) and 7D (MA07168), implementing

Konica Minolta is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Marunouchi, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda, Tokyo, with offices in 49 countries worldwide. The company manufactures business and industrial imaging products, in ...

's CxProcess III running under MiSPO's NORTi/MIPS, an RTOS following the µITRON standard. The MegaChips MA07170 was also used in the DSLR-A200, DSLR-A300, and DSLR-A350. The DSLR-A850 and DSLR-A900 used two such chips in parallel. The MegaChips MA07171 was instead used in the DSLR-A230, DSLR-A290, DSLR-A330, DSLR-A380, and DSLR-A390.

BIONZ – Sony CXD4115 ISP

The first BIONZ processor to fully designed in-house by Sony utilized the Sony image processor in: * CXD4115 ISP - DSLR-A450, DSLR-A500, DSLR-A550 - still using a proprietary operating system (most probably NORTi as well). * CXD9974GG SoC with the revised CXD4115-1 ISP - DSLR-A560, DSLR-A580, SLT-A33, SLT-A35, SLT-A55 / SLT-A55V, NEX-5C, NEX-C3, and NEX-VG10 - all models from here on are

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

-based ( CE Linux 6 with kernel 2.3.)

BIONZ – Sony CXD4132 ISP + CXD90016GF SoC

Sony CXD4132 series chip is a multicore BIONZ processor: * CXD4132 - SLT-A37, SLT-A57, SLT-A58, SLT-A65 / SLT-A65V, SLT-A77 / SLT-A77V, SLT-A99 / SLT-A99V / HV, NEX-F3, NEX-3N, NEX-5N, * CXD90016GF SoC with CXD4132 ISP - NEX-5R, NEX-5T, NEX-6, NEX-7 / Lunar * Unidentified - NEX-VG20, NEX-VG30, NEX-VG900, NEX-FS100, DSC-RX1 / DSC-RX1R, DSC-RX100 / Stellar, DSC-RX100M2

BIONZ X – Sony CXD4236 ISP + CXD90027GF SoC

Sony has introduced their next-generation image processor dubbed the BIONZ X with introduction of ILCE-7 / ILCE-7R in 2013. BIONZ X uses Sony CXD4236 series ISP along with CXD90027GF SoC. The latter is based on a

quad-core A multi-core processor is a microprocessor on a single integrated circuit with two or more separate processing units, called cores, each of which reads and executes program instructions. The instructions are ordinary CPU instructions (such a ...

ARM Cortex-A5 The ARM Cortex-A5 is a 32-bit processor core licensed by ARM Holdings implementing the ARMv7-A architecture announced in 2009. Overview The Cortex-A5 is intended to replace the ARM9 and ARM11 cores for use in low-end devices. The Cortex-A5 offe ...

architecture, and is utilized to run Android apps on top of the

kernel. It features, among other things, detail reproduction technology and diffraction-reducing technology, area-specific noise reduction and 16-bit image processing + 14-bit raw output.14-bit RAW output for rich gradations
It can process up to 20 frames per second and features Lock-on AF and object tracking. * CXD90027GF SoC with unidentified ISP (Stacked DRAM) - α7, α7R, α7 II, α6000, α6500, α99, α7 III * CXD90027GF SoC with CXD4236-1GG ISP - α7S, α7S II, RX100 IV, Sony FDR-AX33 * CXD90027GF SoC with Dual CXD4236-1GG ISP - α7R II, α7R III * Unidentified - ILCE-5000, DSC-RX10, ILCA-77M2, DSC-RX100 III, α7R IV, and DSC-RX0

BIONZ XR

Sony has introduced its next-generation image processor dubbed the BIONZ XR with the introduction of Sony α7S III in 2020. "The sensor is to have eight times as much computing power as the previous image processor." It is also used in the Sony α1 flagship mirrorless camera, the Sony FX6, Sony FX3 compact cinema camera and Sony α7 IV mirrorless camera launched in 2021. New Features * New video codecs / framerates. * New downsampling power in the camera. * Internal Pipeline speed improvements. * Laggy interface fix. * New card formats/interface. * New EVF resolution/ readout speed * Fix of the viewfinder lag during AF or continuous shooting

History of BIONZ chips in Sony cameras

BIONZ – MegaChips MA07170 and MA07171

BIONZ – Sony CXD4115 ISP

BIONZ – Sony CXD4132 ISP + CXD90016GF SoC

BIONZ X – Sony CXD4236 ISP + CXD90027GF SoC

BIONZ XR

See also

References

Further reading