CxProcess is the

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from oth ...

of an

image processing An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimension ...

technology used in

Minolta was a Japanese manufacturer of cameras, camera accessories, photocopiers, fax machines, and laser printers. Minolta Co., Ltd., which is also known simply as Minolta, was founded in Osaka, Japan, in 1928 as . It made the first integrated autofocu ...

and Konica Minolta digital cameras. Image processing in a camera converts the

raw image A camera raw image file contains unprocessed or minimally processed data from the image sensor of either a digital camera, a motion picture film scanner, or other image scanner. Raw files are named so because they are not yet processed and the ...

data from a CCD image sensor into the format that is stored on the

memory card A memory card is an electronic data storage device used for storing digital information, typically using flash memory. These are commonly used in digital portable electronic devices. They allow adding memory to such devices using a card in a soc ...

. This processing is one of the bottlenecks in the speed of digital cameras. Between 2001 and 2006, CxProcess was used in various Minolta and Konica Minolta digital compact cameras,

bridge camera Bridge cameras are cameras that fill the niche between relatively simple point-and-shoot cameras and interchangeable-lens cameras such as mirrorless cameras and single-lens reflex cameras (SLRs). They are often comparable in size and weigh ...

s and

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 ...

s. In order to distinguish the image processing algorithms from the image processor, the image processor was named SUPHEED (for ''superior image and speed'') since 2003. It can be seen as the predecessor of

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 professional ...

's Bionz image processor since their taking-over of Konica Minolta's camera business in 2006. CxProcess was originally introduced with the

Minolta Dimage 5 The Minolta DiMAGE 5 is a "pro-sumer" digital bridge camera, utilising both an electronic viewfinder and LCD back. It is capable of capturing images at 3.3 megapixel In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is th ...

in 2001. SUPHEED was introduced with the Minolta Dimage A1 in 2003, which was also the first to implement CxProcess II. Cameras such as the

Minolta Dimage 7 series The Minolta Dimage 7, 7i, 7Hi series is a "pro-sumer" line of digital electronic viewfinder cameras from Minolta. These are also known as bridge digital cameras. They are capable of capturing images in the 5-megapixel range. The Dimage 7 was an ...

(Dimage 7, 7i, 7Hi), A1 and

Konica Minolta Dimage A2 DiMAGE A2 is a digital camera which was manufactured by Konica Minolta, announced on February 12, 2004. Specifications The Konica Minolta DiMAGE A2 is a discontinued, 8 megapixel CCD digital camera. Sony bought out the Konica Minolta line and ...

were using a MegaChips (MCL) DSC-2 MA07163 series of

32-bit In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in 32- bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform large calcula ...

RISC In computer engineering, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) is a computer designed to simplify the individual instructions given to the computer to accomplish tasks. Compared to the instructions given to a complex instruction set compu ...

processors with MIPS R3000 core. The cameras were running under Integrated Systems' (ISI) operating system

pSOSystem pSOS (Portable Software On Silicon) is a real-time operating system (RTOS), created in about 1982 by Alfred Chao, and developed and marketed for the first part of its life by his company Software Components Group (SCG). In the 1980s, pSOS ra ...

/MIPS (pSOS+/MIPS V2.5.4, pREPC+/MIPS V2.5.2, pHILE+/MIPS FA V4.0.2, pNA+/MIPS V4.0.5). The CxProcess III was implemented in the Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D (2004) and 5D (2005) utilizing SUPHEED II, a MegaChips DSC-3H MA07168 running under MiSPO's NORTi/MIPS, an RTOS following the µITRON standard. While no longer named CxProcess III on SUPHEED II, this was also implemented in the Sony Alpha 100 (2006), utilizing a MegaChips MA07169. Sony introduced their Bionz image processor in 2007 that was originally based on this same technology.

References

Minolta Konica Minolta Camera firmware Image processors {{electronics-stub

See also

References