RCAN

Closed weights Northeastern University 16M parameters July 2018

No estimate

No hardware requirements for this model

The weights for this model have not been published, so it cannot be downloaded or run on your own hardware at any size. It is reachable only through its provider, and no graphics card changes that.

On record

Full specification

Everything on record for this model. Most of it describes how it was trained rather than how it runs — useful context for judging how much work went into it, and how it compares with models built at a different scale.

Origin

Who built this model, where, and when it was published.

Organisation
Northeastern University
Organisation type
Academia
Country
United States of America
Published
8 July 2018
Authors
Yulun Zhang, Kunpeng Li, Kai Li, Lichen Wang, Bineng Zhong, Yun Fu

What it does

The problem areas the model was built for. A model can carry several of each.

Domain
Image generation, Vision
Task
Image super-resolution
Numerical format
FP32

Size

How large the model is and how much data it was trained on. Parameters are the figure that decides whether it fits on a given graphics card.

Parameters
16M

"EDSR has much larger number of parameters (43 M) than ours (16 M), but our RCAN obtains much better performance."

Training data
tokens

How it is classified

Labels the source dataset applies when tracking notable models, and how confident it is in the entry.

Record confidence
Unknown
Citations
4,954

Sources

Where this record came from and when it was last checked.

Reference
Image Super-Resolution Using Very Deep Residual Channel Attention Networks
Last updated
1 January 2026

What the numbers mean

Background

RCAN was published by Northeastern University, in the country recorded as United States of America, during July 2018. The publishing organisation is categorised as academia.

It works in the domain of Image generation, Vision, and is recorded as performing the task of image super-resolution.

This is a closed model: the trained values stayed with whoever produced them, and there is no local version to run.

Answers

RCAN — common questions

01

RCAN— what is it used for?

It works in the domain of Image generation, Vision, and is recorded as handling the task of image super-resolution. A model can carry several of each, so these are the areas it was built for rather than a limit on what it will attempt.

02

RCAN— what GPU do I need to run it?

None. This is a closed model — its weights were never published, so it cannot be downloaded or run on your own hardware at any price. It is reachable only through its provider.

03

RCAN— is it open source?

The licensing was never recorded in our source data. We treat unstated licensing as closed, because an unrecorded licence is not one to rely on.

04

RCAN— how many parameters does it have?

It has a parameter count of 16M. "EDSR has much larger number of parameters (43 M) than ours (16 M), but our RCAN obtains much better performance.". That figure is the total, and it is what decides how much memory the model needs — roughly half a gigabyte per billion at the compression most people use.

05

RCAN— who created it?

It was published by Northeastern University, based in United States of America, an organisation categorised as academia.

06

RCAN— when was it released?

It was published in July 2018. Capability per parameter has improved considerably since, so a newer model of the same size is often the better use of the same hardware.

Source

Original publication

Record last updated 1 January 2026

The other direction

Looking at it from the other side?

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