# Canon has purchased a Fujitsu FX1000 supercomputer to go “no-prototype” in product development



## Canon Rumors Guy (Sep 24, 2020)

> It looks like Canon is moving forward with their “no-prototype” product development with the purchase of a Fujitsu FX1000 supercomputer. Canon will take delivery of the system in the first half of 2021.
> I would imagine this will help lower development costs, as well as make the development of new products more efficient and most likely quicker.
> *Press Release:*
> *TOKYO, Sept. 22, 2020* — Fujitsu Limited today announced that it has received an order for a new supercomputer system from Canon Inc.
> ...



Continue reading...


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## brad-man (Sep 25, 2020)

Well flip that bitch on and design me an RF 24 f/1.4L already...


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## lglass12189 (Sep 25, 2020)

If its used for Canon's Camera division. Remember Canon has much larger business units than its camera division.


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## Canon Rumors Guy (Sep 25, 2020)

lglass12189 said:


> If its used for Canon's Camera division. Remember Canon has much larger business units than its camera division.



I imagine it would be for everything, including new tooling in manufacturing.


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## StandardLumen (Sep 25, 2020)

brad-man said:


> Well flip that bitch on and design me an RF 24 f/1.4L already...


I have no idea what Canon is planning on using this for, of course, but I can actually imagine that crunching mathematical models to come up with new lens designs could be a realistic application.


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## Dantana (Sep 25, 2020)

StandardLumen said:


> I have no idea what Canon is planning on using this for, of course, but I can actually imagine that crunching mathematical models to come up with new lens designs could be a realistic application.


And solitaire


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## analoggrotto (Sep 25, 2020)

Flight SimulatorMicrosoft


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## dwarven (Sep 25, 2020)

Probably one of the execs just wanting to play Crysis on his break.


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## AccipiterQ (Sep 25, 2020)

*FINALLY. The tech needed to achieve triple card-slots. *


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## BeenThere (Sep 25, 2020)

simulation results are no better than the models. If you can model perfectly then models give great results, but most useful things are too difficult to model perfectly, even with supercomputers. However, results can be very good if you are able to eliminate human error.


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## Stu_bert (Sep 25, 2020)

They’ve already got 2 other previous generation Fujitsu supercomputers, so presumably they’re already well versed in the limitations of what can be done....

Combined with AI capabilities in can hopefully reduce the number of iterations required and thus reduce costs.

There’s an AI hardware add on I think I saw on petapixel which decides camera settings so you can focus on the picture itself. 

Increasingly AI and massive compute seems to feature heavily in our future. Glad Canon is investing to remain competitive.


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## tmroper (Sep 25, 2020)

Sounds like it'll be able to handle all the social media input about what people want for new product development.


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## RayValdez360 (Sep 25, 2020)

So this is what you need to edit those R5 video files.


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## gmon750 (Sep 25, 2020)

It’s obvious they needed a PC to open more than three tabs in Chrome.


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## Jasonmc89 (Sep 25, 2020)

How much does one of those cost?


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## Stuart (Sep 25, 2020)

Will it run Lightroom?


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## GMCPhotographics (Sep 25, 2020)

brad-man said:


> Well flip that bitch on and design me an RF 24 f/1.4L already...



RF 24mm f1.0 please...hey if Nasa could do this in the 60's with the Kubrick 50mm f0.75 and 35mm f0.75..then a 24mm f1.0 shouldn't stress this new super computer too hard!


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## Del Paso (Sep 25, 2020)

GMCPhotographics said:


> RF 24mm f1.0 please...hey if Nasa could do this in the 60's with the Kubrick 50mm f0.75 and 35mm f0.75..then a 24mm f1.0 shouldn't stress this new super computer too hard!


But stress beyond imagination our bank-account...


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## degos (Sep 25, 2020)

tmroper said:


> Sounds like it'll be able to handle all the social media input about what people want for new product development.



Well maybe now they could actually do some user surveys...

In 32 years of using Canon I've never once seen any form of market research despite registering my products. Little wonder they get such a tough time at product releases when they haven't actually asked what their users want or need.


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## zim (Sep 25, 2020)

Jasonmc89 said:


> How much does one of those cost?


If you need to ask you can't afford


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## RMac (Sep 25, 2020)

Cool! Out of curiosity, does anyone here know what software tools companies that make optics use to simulate optical performance? I'm pretty familiar with the structural mechanics side of things (my day job is writing structural mechanics simulation software), but am not really familiar with the optical side of things.


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## AccipiterQ (Sep 25, 2020)

Jasonmc89 said:


> How much does one of those cost?



1 Billion US


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## Joel C (Sep 25, 2020)

Pretty sure they bought this to edit 8k footage from the R5...


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## bbasiaga (Sep 25, 2020)

I can't believe no one said this yet....

They'll use it to predict heat accumulation and give better estimates for remaining recording time!!


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## melgross (Sep 25, 2020)

That’s nice. It passes today for what is a low to medium performance model. It should be more than good enough for what Canon needs, once the programming is done, which could take a while.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Sep 25, 2020)

Lenses are still designed by ray tracing. They use computers, but for a complex lens, they are still limited as to what properties can be computed. It used to be that they had computers running 24 / 7 searching out lens formulas to try and find something better yet reasonably priced to build. As higher standards are needed for lenses, its likely that they are still searching thru the infinite number of lens combinations. With newer manufacturing techniques using bonded diffractive elements, there are likely many more years worth of searches to do.


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## nebugeater (Sep 25, 2020)

I heard it is the first step in Canon USA buying and being able to host Tic Toc


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## EOS 4 Life (Sep 25, 2020)

Can it run Crysis Remastered?


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## Jasonmc89 (Sep 25, 2020)

AccipiterQ said:


> 1 Billion US


Serious!?


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## zim (Sep 25, 2020)

EOS 4 Life said:


> Can it run Crysis Remastered?


You are waaay to young for this forum


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## AccipiterQ (Sep 25, 2020)

Jasonmc89 said:


> Serious!?


yah


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## Jasonmc89 (Sep 26, 2020)

AccipiterQ said:


> yah


No way!


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## RunAndGun (Sep 26, 2020)

degos said:


> Well maybe now they could actually do some user surveys...
> 
> In 32 years of using Canon I've never once seen any form of market research despite registering my products. Little wonder they get such a tough time at product releases when they haven't actually asked what their users want or need.



I was solicited several years ago on the cine side. And they sent me a nice discount code (maybe 15%-20% off, IIRC) to use in the Canon store for my time. Ended up using it on a 100-400 v2 that already had an instant rebate on it.


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## reefroamer (Sep 26, 2020)

degos said:


> Well maybe now they could actually do some user surveys...
> 
> In 32 years of using Canon I've never once seen any form of market research despite registering my products. Little wonder they get such a tough time at product releases when they haven't actually asked what their users want or need.


Makes no sense for Canon to publicly release its market research findings. Such information would be a gift to competitors and save them the cost of doing their own research.


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## Ozarker (Sep 26, 2020)

brad-man said:


> Well flip that bitch on and design me an RF 24 f/1.4L already...


 I hope you get it in a f/1.4... but I'm really hoping it will be an f/1.2.


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## Ozarker (Sep 26, 2020)

degos said:


> Well maybe now they could actually do some user surveys...
> 
> In 32 years of using Canon I've never once seen any form of market research despite registering my products. Little wonder they get such a tough time at product releases when they haven't actually asked what their users want or need.


I've filled out 2 or 3 surveys.


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## ChrisPow (Sep 26, 2020)

Stuart said:


> Will it run Lightroom?


Slow down there buster. It’s gonna take a lot more power than this to make Lightroom run smoothly!


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Sep 26, 2020)

CanonFanBoy said:


> I've filled out 2 or 3 surveys.


Canon and Nikon usually hold meetings locally with our camera store inviting pro customers, its not a matter of registering equipment.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Sep 26, 2020)

RMac said:


> Cool! Out of curiosity, does anyone here know what software tools companies that make optics use to simulate optical performance? I'm pretty familiar with the structural mechanics side of things (my day job is writing structural mechanics simulation software), but am not really familiar with the optical side of things.


Its likely custom software that has the properties of canon's proprietary glass built-in.. You can determine a lens characteristic almost completely if you have enough computing horsepower.

Its theoretically possible to have a complete design from design of the optics to tooling assembly, everything. The reality is always a bit different, Canon seems very determined to automate almost every phase of their business. Its going to take many years to get even 20% done.









OpticStudio


Top aerospace, astronomy, bio-medicine, and electronics firms trust OpticStudio for their optical design software needs. See this comprehensive tool in action.




www.zemax.com


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## brad-man (Sep 26, 2020)

CanonFanBoy said:


> I hope you get it in a f/1.4... but I'm really hoping it will be an f/1.2.


I'd take either one, but I consider 1.2 to be diminishing returns in size, weight and wallet.


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## AccipiterQ (Sep 27, 2020)

Jasonmc89 said:


> No way!


Totally


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## Jasonmc89 (Sep 27, 2020)

AccipiterQ said:


> Totally


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## Tidy Media (Sep 28, 2020)

Jasonmc89 said:


>


Thought he was taking the piss.
Actually $1B, holy cow!


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## drama (Sep 28, 2020)

I'm interested in how long a "supercomputer" remains relevant and cost effective? I'm sure Canon have done the cost benefit analysis, but aren't these things usually wheeled out 10-20 years later as part of memes to show we now put something that speed into our phones?


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## xps (Sep 28, 2020)

To calculate the pain limit, where customers will not buy slower L RF-lenses anymore. And to see how slow they can go and still everybody buys them.


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## xps (Sep 28, 2020)

Tidy Media said:


> Thought he was taking the piss.
> Actually $1B, holy cow!


Wow, so small. and so expensive.
The first supercomputer I saw back in end 50ties was called "Mailüfterl" . Some meters long and high.


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## analoggrotto (Sep 29, 2020)

Looks like a desktop mid or mini tower in the picture, haha


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## DennisHuiberts (Sep 29, 2020)

I think it's a terrible idea. I test semiconductor equipment for work most of the time based on simulated models and more often than not, significant differences between models and actual parts can be seen. Supercomputers can simulate designs real well, but the deviations are mostly caused by engineers not taking certain factors into account in their models. We see the issues with the R5 which is tested on real products and already see problems. That won't become better if you go the no-prototype approach.


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## TAF (Sep 30, 2020)

bbasiaga said:


> I can't believe no one said this yet....
> 
> They'll use it to predict heat accumulation and give better estimates for remaining recording time!!



Yes. Yes they will. Heat flow computations are quite processor intensive.


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## RMac (Sep 30, 2020)

TAF said:


> Yes. Yes they will. Heat flow computations are quite processor intensive.


Transient heat flow is. Steady-state heat flow calculation is pretty fast, and if they designed the thermal management system to a steady-state condition, that would bode well for record times...


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## funkboy (Oct 12, 2020)

Jasonmc89 said:


> How much does one of those cost?



It depends on the configuration. "Fugaku" is the $US1.2B flagship machine at RIKEN, which has ~160,000 nodes.
Their two-node FX700 rack server costs about $US40K (which you'll eventually be able to buy from Penguin Computing).

From the article it appears that Canon bought a single 650tflop FX1000 rack, which has 192 nodes.
So if you ballpark $20K per node then you're looking at ~$US3.8 million.

Given that Canon is the flagship commercial customer for FX1000, you can bet they didn't pay that much for it.
However they probably paid at least 1/3 again the purchase price for setup & maintenance services. Supercomputer clusters are not exactly turnkey commodity IT devices (although Fujitsu is angling to make the "little" FX700 pretty easy to get up & running).

To put things into perspective, for pure CPU compute (talking apples to apples, not GPUs here), a cluster of amd64 dual-EPYC 7742 traditional 1u servers crams about 280tflops into a similar rack, so Fujitsu's A64FX has almost 2.5x the compute density of the best amd64 CPUs you can get your hands on at the moment.


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