arm processor informations and opinions

[<gass@otiliamatos.ath.cx>]

Hello !

i am a mechanical engeneer student and i am beginning a project that
consists in develop a tool for image processing for industry (
artificial vision).

I remembered that i saw some nice arm processor boards that are not that
difficult to build, and the price is quite low (about 1000 euros a
prototype).

My question is: is the arm processor capable of supporting multiple
acquiring image devices (cameras) and process them (by a C program)?

I think an intel pentium @ 450 MHz is capable, but how do i comparfe with
arm, before i buy?

My idea is to develop an custom board and to connect there multiple
cameras (as needed ... 1 to 4 cameras) filter the image and provide
results (for example, to count pills in a pill box), basing that in
installing a base debian system and then provide packages of the
application of image treatment.

what do you think?

Just for the record, i am an active debian user in x86 and x86-64.

best regards

Luis Matos