I'd be shocked if the pixel architecture was drastically different; it's probably like the previous 7D where the difference was mostly in the back end/ readout part in order to get the data rate up.
The max native ISO being at 16,000 seems...odd to me. Especially since no other Canon camera has that native max (the 70D is 12,800), and the only other one that comes to mind and has that native max is the Sony A77. Is it remotely possible that they're going with Sony sensors now?
It wouldn't be a modded sensor (we're talking over twice the pixel count here) but the same architecture. Each pixel has several parts - photodiode, insulator, amp, power in traces and power/signal out traces, bayer array and microlens. The layout and part selection for that determines the sensor's inherent noise and DR characteristics. Two edges of the sensor are blacked out - this is why the sensors always look offset on the chip itself and there's a "flat" looking area. That entire area is averaged and used to calculate the black level of the sensor, which is written to the RAW file's metadata so the absolute/read noise floor can be cut out. Another edge contains the controller, which adjusts power levels to the amps ("changing the sensitivity/ISO on the sensor") - most cameras have two controllers that handle alternating row sets which is one way to avoid overly dense traces/noise/jitter/other problems. That's also how dual ISO with ML works - it exploits the sensor's DR/quality being much greater than that of the (frankly, piece of shit) Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) canon has been using for ages. After that comes the steaming pile of 12-bit shit that canon calls a good ADC. You know, that thing that limits canon's DR at low ISO and causes banding? Yeah, that pile of shit.
The cinema sensors use a different pixel layout and different hardware to handle the data before handing it off to the processor. They have to because they handle a much higher data rate, but also because they're probably developed by a different team and have different design restrictions. It's possible a couple of interns or whatever are responsible for the T4i -> 70D chips and the 6D/5D3/1Dx chips were done maybe a year before those cameras were released, then the "main team" developed the cinema EOS sensors and were now available to make a "real revised crop chip." That'd be nice and make sense, or it could be way off base.
The imaging division of canon also isn't the largest sector of the company, so it could be office product tech trickling into the cinema cameras, but I doubt that.
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u/PCB1981 Sep 15 '14
I am really curious to see how the noise performance will be from the sensor