Method and apparatus for providing a single-instruction multiple data digital camera system that integrates on-chip sensing and parallel processing

A digital camera system, comprising:

• a plurality of block-columns, each including,
• rows and columns of pixel sensor elements, the pixel sensor elements to capture an image and provide a signal representation thereof,
• analog-to-digital converters, each coupled to a corresponding column of sensor elements, each analog-to-digital converter to provide a digital value, responsive to the outputs of the sensor elements,
• a storage element coupled to receive the digital value, and
• an arithmetic logic unit coupled to the storage element.

A digital camera system method, comprising:

• providing rows and columns of discrete sensor elements, to capture an image and provide an analog representation thereof;
• converting each analog representation of each column into a digital value;
• storing the digital values;
• and
• operating on the digital values in parallel to provide an output image.

A single chip digital camera system, comprising:

• a sensor array including rows and columns of discrete sensor elements;
• analog-to-digital converter means coupled to a corresponding column of sensor elements, for converting analog values into digital data;
• storage means coupled to the analog-to-digital converter means, for storing the digital data;
• and
• arithmetic logic unit means coupled to the storage means, for performing operations on the digital data.